


Ever Tyler and The Doctor

by NoapologiesNoexcusesNoregrets



Series: Everlyna [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Crack, Character Death, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Humour, M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2018-05-11 19:57:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 67,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5640034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoapologiesNoexcusesNoregrets/pseuds/NoapologiesNoexcusesNoregrets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some people are born to be heroes. </p><p>Some people are born to be monsters. </p><p>Some people make all the wrong choices. </p><p>Some people only make one.</p><p>I made a choice. </p><p>I thought I understood. </p><p>I didn't. </p><p>The universe, all of reality, is so much more than I could have imagined. </p><p>Life with the Doctor is spectacular and beautiful and terrifying and deadly.</p><p>I was born to be extraordinary, and this is my story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ever&Rose

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.
> 
> Hello everyone! This is my new story for insanity and hilarity lovers. I should point out that one of my main characters 'Ever' is also in three other stories of mine. A lot of people love her, and I hope all of you will too!
> 
> Some warnings:
> 
> There will be het and slash pairings later on in this fic, just so you all know. A lot of bad language too. Graphic situations later on in the story as well, but I'll warn you about those more specifically when the time comes.
> 
> Please give this story a chance, that's all I'm asking. My aim is to make your bad days a little happier and your good days even better by giving you a shot of fun-loving insanity. Please let me know if I ever succeed.

"Wilson!" Rose calls out, "We've got the lottery money!"

"And a nice bottle of vodka!" I add when we get no reply.

Rose gives me a look that could wilt flowers and I shrug,

"What? We could have vodka."

"For the last time, Wilson is not an alcoholic," Rose says, sounding both tired and annoyed. Then again, that is her usual tone these days. Mum says it's just her teenage hormones messing with her head. I say it's a severe case of woe-es-me-ness. Better known as whiny whingealot syndrome.

Hey, it could be a thing, don't knock it.

I make a peace sign with my fingers and reply,

"Oh yeah, then what do you call that flask of whiskey he always keeps on him, and guards with his life? I tell ya what, anyone who keeps alcohol in their pocket at all times is unhealthily attached to a bit of liquid courage, that's all I'm saying."

Rose rolls her eyes at me as we continue along down the cold dirty corridor. I don't even know why we're still here, I'd rather just blue tack the bag of tickets to his office door and leg it before the bloody shop closes. I do not want to miss our bus just because Wilson is already out for the count. No doubt Mum would start in on me again about staying out too late. It's stupid because I've not been out properly for weeks anyway, ever since I decided getting drunk at our local park was getting a bit old.

My twin and I both jump when we hear a sudden crashing sound coming from further on around the corner. I frown and start to walk towards where the noise came from. Rose follows after me, the bag of tickets still clutched in her hands.

"Hello! Wilson!" Rose tries calling again.

"He'd have heard us by now, Ro," I mutter quietly and reach over to flick a strand of her hair.

Rose shoves me away,

"Oi, get off," but there's laughter in her eyes too.

Rose and me don't get on all the time, but what teenage sisters do? We're in one of those rare stretches of time at the moment however when everything is kind of ok between us. The last proper fight we had was over Mickey. I say it was over Mickey, but really it was about Rose going out with my ex only a week after we broke it off.

That was months ago though, so I'm not really bothered anymore. I wasn't all that bothered back then to tell you the truth, but it was the principle of the thing. Rose argued that I was the one who broke up with him, so I don't have a right to be annoyed. Maybe she was right, not that I'd ever tell her that.

We go into one of the storage rooms full of mannequins, and I strain my ears for any signs of whatever made that noise. Rose is frowning now, and she moves beyond me and further into the room.

Something feels off, like, seriously off. Not quite scary, but more than just creepy too.

When the storage room doors slam closed behind us I let out a loud curse. Rose shouts in frustration as we both attempt to open the now apparently locked doors.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" I say. To no one.

I kick at the door and groan in irritation. We better not get locked inside here all night. I do not want to be stuck in an enclosed space with a bunch of dummy's. And Rose. Although the distinction between the two is very thin in my mind. I might actually, given the right amount of alcohol, prefer to have a conversation with a mannequin than my own twin. You'd understand if you met her.

"What are we going to do now?" Rose asks me, as if I've got a plan all ready and waiting.

"I dunno, you got a key for these doors?" I ask dryly.

Apparently not picking up on my tone, or simply answering out of tiredness, my sister says,

"No."

"A power drill?" I try again.

"Nope."

"A phone?"

"Yes!"

"Charged?"

"Uh...no."

"Brilliant."

"This really isn't funny now," Rose says and she crosses her arms.

I raise an eyebrow at her,

"It was funny before?"

"Shut up, you know what I mean," Rose gives me another wilting look.

"No one ever knows what you mean, Ro," I mutter, trying the door one last time before stalking on through the storage room. Maybe there's another door somewhere at the other end.

Things start to get real weird just about then.

"Um, Ever." Rose says, a strange trembly sound to her voice.

I turn around, frowning,

"What?"

Rose points at a mannequin,

"That plastic dummy just moved."

"Oh, ha ha, hilarious," I say with a mock thumbs up.

And then the mannequin moves.

Well fuck a duck in the sky.

"Yeah, we've got the joke," Rose says loudly, as if speaking to invisible people, "Who's idea was this then?"

I wait for a response, hopefully from some work friends playing a prank on us. No reply comes, and the other mannequins begin moving towards us. Yeah, this isn't good.

I yank on Rose's hoodie, pulling her back and away from the mannequins. We both move backwards, more slowly than we ought to be really. I just can't believe what we're seeing, or maybe I can and I would just rather not be seeing it. Either way, not fond of the animated plastic thingies.

When they have us backed up against a wall I take Rose's hand, and pick up a broken pipe from the floor. If I'm gonna have to fight off some plastic mofo's, then so be it. Although, just for the record, my fighting ability boils down to that one time I slapped Callie Mackenzie for calling my mum a slapper. I'm very much a lover rather than a fighter. Peace to all things I say. I don't think these plastic creatures are on my wavelength though.

Just when I think we might actually be about to get beaten to death by a hoard of mannequins, a big warm hand wraps around my wrist and I give a little start. I turn to look at who the flipping hell just touched me, and it better not be Wilson because if it is then he's getting a pipe to the face and all.

It isn't Wilson though, it's a man I've never seen before, a man with blue eyes, big ears and wearing a leather jacket. Goodie.

"Run!" the man shouts. Don't have to tell me twice, mate.

He pulls on my wrist and we start running like our lives depend on it, which to be fair, they very well might. I yank on Rose's hand to make sure she's following as well. I'd get an ear full from mum if I let Rose get murdered on my watch. The three of us run full pelt down a corridor, the mannequins hot on our heels.

We make it into the lift, just about, but one of the plastic armss gets caught in the door. Leather ears starts trying to dislodge the arm from the mannequin so that the door can close. I let go of Rose long enough to try and help him. Between us we manage to detach the arm, and thankfully the lift door closes.

"You pulled his arm off," Rose says in slight distaste.

"Yep," the man says simply.

"Oi," I gesture with one finger between me and the man, "That was a joint effort thank you very much."

Rose ignores me, oh what an uncommon event, and says to the stranger,

"That was a nice trick. Who were they then, students?"

The man turns to frown at Rose,

"Why would they be students?"

Rose looks equally as perplexed by her own suggestion,

"I dunno."

"Well you said it, why students?" The man asks reasonably.

Rose seems to question herself before saying,

"Well, to get that many people doing something silly, they must be students."

"That makes sense, well done," The man says, sounding as condescending as my year nine math teacher who once told me that being in the lowest band of mathematical intelligence didn't mean I was stupid all around, just with numbers. God I hated school.

"Yeah, gold star to Rose," I lean back against the lift wall and narrow my gaze at the man, "Who are they really then?"

Rose snorts and says,

"Well whoever they are, when Wilson finds them he's gonna call the police."

"Who's Wilson?" The mans asks.

Just ignore my questions then!

"The chief electrician," I tell him.

"Wilson's dead," The man says uncaringly.

I consider this, and reply,

"Are you sure he's not just flat out drunk? Maybe passed out?"

The man gives me a look, like I might be a new species of bug, and says,

"Definitely dead. Not drunk."

"Did you check?" I ask him suspiciously.

"He was dead," the man says flatly.

Huh, didn't see that one coming.

The lift stops and we all get out.

"That's not funny," Rose says, "That's sick."

The man ignores Rose and takes out a...weird...blue light...thing. He points it at the lift controls and suddenly shit is exploding. Oh joy.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" I ask, fully expecting him not to answer me.

I was right. The man strides away purposefully and I follow after him, Rose at my side. I'm still holding the pipe, for safety reasons, if this bloke tries anything, I want to be ready.

"What are those things?" I try again.

He actually answers this time,

"They're plastic. Living plastic creatures, and they're being controlled by a relay device on the roof, which would be a big problem if I didn't have this," he whips out a beeping bomb from his pocket and I officially decide that it's time to bugger off whilst all _my_ limps are still attached.

"You have a bomb in your pocket." I say, more to myself than to him.

"Yes, and I'm going to blow up this building," the man says nonchalantly. He opens a door and continues spewing madness, "And I'll probably die in the process, but don't worry about me."

The man shoves me out the door, Rose close behind,

"Go on home, have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this, because it will get them killed." Then he closes the door.

I feel dismissed. And strangely, this once, I'm ok with it.

But then the door opens again and the man looks right at me,

"I'm the Doctor by the way, who are you?"

"Rose," my twins says.

"Nice to meet you Rose," The Doctor smiles enigmatically, although his attention is still on me. I would rather it wasn't. "And you?" he encourages again.

I narrow my eyes at him,

"The Unicorn."

An all too real smile alights the Doctor's face,

"Quite right too. Now, run for your life!" he slams the door shut again, and this time I think it's for good.

"Right, off we go then," I say.

"But-" Rose starts. I don't let her continue as I take her hand and run. For my life. Again.

We get around the corner right as the building explodes.

My only thought, despite all the craziness, is that I hope the whacko in leather is actually alright.

...

"I know, it's on the telly, they're both lucky to be alive!" Mum says into her phone to...most likely Aunt Kathy, those two gossip about pretty much everything.

Mum hands Rose a cup of tea, and my twin and I share a smirk. We both love our Mum to pieces, but she can be a bit...over the top sometimes. Although maybe this situation deserves some overreaction.

A second later it's Mickey who's coming in through the door, his face set in panic.

"I've been phoning both your mobiles, you could have been dead," he says, sounding half hysterical. He tries to give me a hug and I kick him in the shins.

"Give your girlfriend a hug, you idiot, she's the one who deserves all the wuv," I say to him. Rose gives me evils as Mickey goes to molest her a little bit. I poke my tongue out back. She wanted him, she's got him, awkward hugs and all. Not that I don't love Mickey, I do, he's one of my oldest friends, but there are definitely good reasons why we broke up. This situation just highlights those reasons.

"What happened? How did it start?" Mickey asks worriedly, his gaze flickering between us.

"I don't know, we weren't even in the shop," Rose lies for both of us.

Mum comes back in then and holds out the phone to me and Rose,

"It's Debbie on the phone, she says she knows a man, works for the Mirror, five hundred quid for an interview."

"Oh great," I snatch the phone out of my mum's hand and say to Debbie, "Go away and tell your Calvin to stop using his bloody telescope to look in through my bedroom window." I hang up the phone and drop it onto the table.

Mum crosses her arms and gives me the same wilting look that Rose can pull off,

"You two need to start thinking about how you're gonna be making money, now. I'm not bailing you out, Misses."

I lean back into the sofa and mutter,

"There are other shops, Mum."

I'm saved when the phone rings again and Mum goes off telling another one of her gossip mongrels, Beth, all about mine and Rose's death defying experience.

Mickey takes the cup of tea out of Rose's hands and says,

"Come on, a cup of tea, nah, you need a real drink, lets go down the pub."

Rose and I both exchange a glance and then say at the same time,

"There's a match on."

Mickey places a hand over his heart and says,

"It's not that, I'm just thinking of my two best girls."

I roll my eyes and smile at Rose,

"There's definitely a match on."

Mickey starts to shift a little on the sofa,

"Yeah, well, that's not the point," he says sheepishly, "But we could catch the last few minutes."

"Go on," Rose says, and she pats his arm, "I'm fine, really."

"You sure?" he asks her, but his eyes stray to me, as if asking my permission. I wave a dismissive hand at him. All I want to do is sleep for a week.

"Yeah, don't worry." Rose says to Mickey, who readily enough gets up and heads out the door, but not before kissing Rose. I make a gagging face at them, and try to trip Mickey up as he leaves.

I turn back to Rose and say,

"Well, it could have been worse."

"How exactly could it have been worse?" Rose asks in a pissy voice.

I smile at her,

"We could have been smacked to death by mannequins, not a very dignified way to go."

Rose snorts a laugh at me and mumbles,

"Weirdo."

...

The next morning Rose and I are sitting at the table, and Mum is having another go at us about money.

"You could try Finches, they've always got jobs," Mum says,

"Oh great, the butchers," Rose starts fiddling with an apple.

I ignore them both and go back to reading my book. I'm not worried about getting a job, I'm more worried about the fact that mannequins can apparently come alive and that there's lunatics out there calling themselves 'the Doctor' who have access to bombs. Apparently.

I get up when I hear rustling at the door, letting Mum and Rose continue their argument. I figure it's probably one of our neighbours coming round to be nosy as per usual. But when I open the door it's not one of my neighbours standing there, it's the Doctor. Bloody hell in a handbasket. I'm being stalked by a whacko. Fantastic.

"What are you doing here?" The Doctor asks, sounding confused, of all things.

I huff in exasperation,

"I broke in and now I'm stealing the good silver, go away or you'll ruin the whole operation-I _**LIVE** _ here!" _Obviously you moron_ , goes unsaid.

"Well what'd you do that for?" The Doctor says most annoyingly.

"To make life difficult for you," I reply drolly.

The Doctor eyes me speculatively,

"You're very snarky, has anyone ever told you that."

"Only every adult I've ever known, thanks," I say. Rose comes up behind me, her eyes widen when she see's the Doctor.

"It's you!" she exclaims.

He waves at her,

"Yep, hello," he takes out that weird blue bleep-bleep thingy, "Must have gotten the wrong signal."

Rose moves forward and drags the Doctor into our flat. I groan both inwardly and outwardly,

"Don't let the man with the bombs in!"

"Who's that at the door?" Mum calls out from her room.

"Come with me," Rose says to the Doctor, and he, against all reason, follows after her. He winks and gestures for me to come. I might have to beat this man with something. Maybe a particularly heavy chair.

As we move past Mum's room, I say,

"Just a man in about last night, give us a few minutes, yeah."

"They deserve compensation," Mum says to the Doctor.

"We're talking millions," The Doctor states with an agreeable nod.

I hit him in the side,

"Don't encourage her."

Then Mum starts to flirt with him and I just about throw up on the floor. I drag him away before anything childhood destroying happens.

"Do you want a cup of coffee?" Rose offers when we're through to the living room.

The Doctor raises an eyebrow, but says,

"Yeah, sure."

"We should go to the police," Rose says as she goes into the kitchen to make coffee or whatever.

I content myself with watching the Doctor as he touches just about everything. At one point he picks up a magazine and points at a picture of a famous couple,

"Well that won't last, he's gay and she's an alien."

"All relationships have issues," I say with a shrug, taking in his ridiculous rambling without much thought.

The Doctor smiles at me and asks,

"What's your real name then?"

I cross my arms defiantly,

"I told you, I'm the Unicorn, what's your real name?"

"I'm the Doctor," he says firmly.

"Fair enough then," I reply, not giving in an inch.

The Doctor does that enigmatic smile thing again and turns around. He catches sight of himself in the mirror and says,

"Hmmm, could have been worse...those ears though."

"Well I wasn't gonna say anything," I say to him, "But since you brought it up..."

The Doctor picks up my driving licence off the table and looks at me,

"Everlyna Tyler."

"Just Ever, actually," I grab the driving license out of his hand.

"Hmm, Ever Tyler the Unicorn, I like it," The Doctor says, sounding genuine. Yeah, definitely a bit bonkers this one.

The Doctor leans over to look at the back of our sofa,

"You got a cat?" he asks.

"Um no-" I gasp when that plastic arm from last night comes flying at the Doctor and wraps it's hand around his throat.

The Doctor starts choking and I rush to help him try to yank the arm away. Rose comes in then and takes in the scene with a look of derisiveness.

"What are you two doing? I'm trying to be serious here."

We finally get the plastic hand off and it goes flying towards Rose, the hand splayed out over her face. Her back hits the wall and I shout.

The Doctor tries to help my sister, but the arm is so damn strong that they end up falling back onto the table with a crash. There's glass and coffee everywhere now. Rose is pushed back against the sofa and I help the Doctor to his feet,

"Use the bloody bleep-bleep thingy or something!" I shout at him.

The Doctor does just that and manages to get the arm to let go of Rose. I stand protectively in front of her and The Doctor aims the blue bleep-bleep thingy at the arm again. He picks it up and presses the blue light to the hand part. Slowly it stops moving and appears to become just normal plastic again.

"See, fixed it," The Doctor says, he throws the arm towards me and I bat it away, "Harmless," he adds with a self satisfied smile.

"You think," Rose sputters.

I use my finger and thumb to create a small gap,

"You are this far from getting a smack," I tell the Doctor seriously.

The Doctor gets up and leaves our flat without another word and I follow after him, despite telling myself not to.

"Hold on, you can't just go swanning off," Rose calls after him.

"Yes I can," The Doctor replies easily "Here I am, swanning off."

"That arm tried to kill me!" Rose exclaims angrily.

"Ten out of ten for observation," The Doctor says whilst still walking away from us.

When we get out of the building I finally catch up to him and ask,

"What's going on with those plastic things? What are they?"

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about it" The Doctor says. That's it, where's my God damn pipe!

"Who are you?" Rose demands, walking up on his other side.

"I told you, I'm the Doctor."

"He won't tell you anything else," I say to my sister, "Besides, who cares who he is! There are more important things here, people are in danger!"

The Doctor stops suddenly and spins dizzyingly to face me. His expression holds...interest, although I don't quite think that's the right word.

"What did you just say?"

"I said a lot of things, be more specific," I snap at him.

"You don't care who I am?" The Doctor questions, he tilts his head to the side.

I narrow my eyes at him,

"Sorry to burst your ego bubble, Doctor, I just want to know what's going on so that I can help."

"Why do you want to help?" The Doctor asks, as if it's the most important question that has ever been put to another.

I stand my ground and say,

"I won't sit back and let other people get hurt if I can do something to stop it." Which is the truth.

The Doctor watches me for another few seconds, and his eyes seem to look right down into my soul. It causes me to shiver, and I peer a bit more closely at him. He's a handsome man, despite the ears, and he's clearly intelligent...but more than that...his eyes...oh...such sad eyes. I almost tell him so, but catch myself just in time. But I do wonder, what could make a man look like he's about to laugh, scream and cry all at once at any moment.

I shake my head, wishing the questions away, because I'll probably never know the answers.

It's as if a spell has been broken, and the Doctor is walking away again. Rose gives me a strange look, but doesn't comment as we both follow after the Doctor once more.

"Are you the police?" Rose asks him.

I snort out a laugh, is he's the police then I'm the bloody Queen of England.

"Nah, just passing through. I'm a long way from home."

Home. Where would someone like this man call home?

"What have I done wrong though, why are all those plastic things trying to kill me?" Rose questions the Doctor.

The Doctor rolls his eyes at my sister and says sarcastically,

"Oh, suddenly the whole world revolves around you, eh."

"I've been saying that for years," I say with mock glee, causing Rose to glare at me before turning back to the Doctor.

"It tried to murder me!"

"It was after me!" The Doctor explains, "Last night in the shop, I was there, you two blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing. It's tracking me, the only reason it went for you is because you met me."

"So what you're really saying is that the whole world revolves around you," Rose says with a roll of her eyes.

"Sort of, yeah," The Doctor answers honestly.

Nice.

"I'm glad we all have our ego's in check," I mutter.

The Doctor grins at me again,

"Snarky, you are, like I said."

"Who else knows about it?" I ask him, ignoring his comment like he ignores mine.

"No one," he says.

"What, you're on your own?" Great, we're working with a bloody vigilante.

"Well, who else is there? All you lot do is sit around and eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly."

"Oi, don't knock chips," I poke him in the chest, "There's nothing wrong with chips. Chips are good."

"Just tell us what's going on, if we're going with the moving plastic bit, which I still don't believe, then how did you kill it?" Rose asks, sounding more eager than I've ever heard her.

Someone's just got themselves a lifetime fan.

"The thing controlling it projects life into the plastic, I cut off the signal, dead," The Doctor explains.

"Did you have to kill it?" I find myself asking, and then mentally slap myself because does it really matter now?

The Doctor gives me that 'interested' look again,

"They weren't really alive."

"Are you sure?" I ask him, because for some reason it feels important.

The Doctor makes eye contact with me and he answers seriously,

"I'm absolutely sure."

I nod, feeling relieved,

"Good, so is it like mind control, but without the actual mind part?"

"Yes, it's thought control," The Doctor says, looking surprised that I came out with a correct answer. I wonder if I should feel offended that he seems so shocked.

"Who's controlling it then?" Rose asks him.

"Long story," the Doctor waves the question away.

"Is that code for, you wouldn't understand it if I tried to explain?" I watch him thoughtfully.

"Yes."

"Rude."

"But true."

I consider it and nod,

"Probably, but what's it all for? Don't tell me, someone wants to take over Primemark because they need a unique amount of cheap clothes and even cheaper pants?" We all laugh at that.

"They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you," The Doctor says, easily sobering us up to the situation.

"Sounds a bit over dramatic," I say.

"Some aliens are over dramatic," The Doctor replies.

Woah, hold on, did he say-

"Did you say aliens?" Rose stands there, open mouthed in shock.

The Doctor gives us this almost fond look and his expression is a little more open when he says,

"It's like when you first learn that the world is spinning beneath your feet, because it looks like everything is standing still around you. One of those things that sound and seem impossible. I can feel it, the world, turning, moving, spinning, at sixty-seven thousand miles per hour around the sun, the three of us are falling through space, clinging onto the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go...That's who I am." His expression is intense, and it causes my heart to skip a few impossible beats. The look in his eyes makes me want to back away, and at the same time move closer. I realise then that his hand is in mine.

I don't let go even when he tries to pull away.

The Doctor looks up at my sister, his expression grave,

"Now, forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home."

If he thinks this is over, then he is mistaken on several levels.

But when the Doctor looks up at me, there's a different kind of shine to his eyes and he says,

"Ever Tyler, do you want to save the world?"

I don't even hesitate, which quite frankly is frightening all by itself,

"Yes, more than I've ever wanted anything."

"Why?" The Doctor asks, his eyes searching down deep into mine once more.

I meet that searching gaze head on when I answer,

"Because someone has to, and I don't trust you enough to know that you will."

The Doctor smiles in a way that makes me unsure if I said the right thing, or the wrong one.

"Do you trust me enough to get inside that blue box?" The Doctor gestures at a wooden blue police box.

I shake my head,

"No, but I'll do it anyway if that's what it takes to stop whatever is controlling these plastic creatures from hurting more people."

The Doctor watches me for a long moment, and a feeling of both fear and excitement starts to rush through my veins at an alarming speed.

"Right, come on then, better get a move on." He starts to walk towards the blue box, my hand still in his.

Rose grabs onto my arm and tries to pull me back. The Doctor lets go of my other hand, and I feel the loss like a wound. It scares me a little.

"Ever, don't be stupid, he could be dangerous."

I give her a sad smile and say,

"Oh, I'm counting on it, Ro."

Momentarily stunned, Rose lets go of my arm when I pull away.

I rush over to join the Doctor outside the blue police box, unable to understand how we'll even fit inside that thing.

I don't have to wait long to find out.

My first thought when I get over my shock is that I've never seen anything so beautiful in all my life. It's just...so... _incredible_.

"Right then, question time, go ahead," The Doctor says to me. He takes a few steps up onto a larger platform. There's a machine in the middle of it that seems to be almost...alive.

"It smaller on the outside," I just about manage to get out.

The Doctor gives me a completely different strange look from the ones before, and he says,

"People usually go with 'it's bigger on the inside', but trust you to be different."

"You're a bloody alien," I state, finding my voice a little as I move further inside the...spaceship? I'm inside the fucking death star here!

"Yes," The Doctor says solemnly, "Is that alright?"

"I suppose so, not much we can do about it if it isn't," I reply, still awed by what I'm seeing.

"It's called a TARDIS. T.A.R.D.I.S. That's Time And Relative Dimension In Space," The Doctor explains, but I'm barely hearing him as I walk around the TARDIS, inspecting every bit of it like it's the most amazing thing I'll ever see. I take that back, this is the most amazing thing I'll ever see. I feel like crying.

"Tell me the truth, Doctor," I say eventually.

The Doctor eyes me thoughtfully,

"About what?"

I arch one eyebrow,

"Have you met Luke Skywalker?"

"No," The Doctor says dryly, "But I've heard some interesting legends."

"I'll just bet you have," I say with a smirk.

"Ah, there you are, the snarky girl is back. Good, not too much culture shock to deal with," The Doctor starts fiddling with a few weird buttons and levers on the console of the...TARDIS.

"Can you actually fly this thing then?" I ask, a renewed curiosity growing inside of me.

"It disappears and then reappears somewhere else," The Doctor explains.

"Sounds very spacey and complicated," I reach out to touch the console, and the feel of it makes me grin for some reason, like the TARDIS is welcoming me aboard. This is so fantastically mental.

"It would be, for you," The Doctor says, and I decide that this would all be a lot more amazing if he wasn't here.

"Oh, sure, insult the little human girl."

The Doctor looks me up and down,

"You're not that little."

I narrow my eyes at him,

"Did you just call me stupid and fat in the space of a few minutes? Wow, does your alien girlfriend put up with that kind of crap?"

"I don't have a girlfriend," The Doctor replies shortly.

"Boyfriend then?" I question, mostly just to annoy him.

"Nope, no boyfriend, either," The Doctor fiddles with a few more bits and pieces, and suddenly the big machine comes to life all around me. A strongly hypnotic whirring sound starts and the TARDIS begins to shake, as if moving with some unseen force behind it.

"What about friends?" I ask The Doctor, not one to be easily detured.

"Would you shut up, you're as bad as your sister," The Doctor says, "We're in a spaceship that's bigger on the inside and all you can think about is how sociable I am."

"Alright, alright, no need to get testy," I hold up hands up, trying to placate him.

"I am not _testy_ ," he says, sounding about ten years old. Great, I'm saving the world with a full grown space-child.

"What's the plastic thing's problem with us anyway?" I ask him, bringing us back to more relevant ground.

"Nothing, it loves you," The Doctor moves closer to me and explains, "You've got such a good planet, full of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect, just what the Nestene conciseness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war."

War? What war? And why do I get such a strong feeling that it would be a very bad idea to ask about it? Please tell me I'm not psychic, I really do not want to be psychic.

"So how are you going to stop them from taking over?"

The Docotor grins and reaches into his pocket. I wince, almost expecting another bloody bomb, but what he takes out is a thick vile of blue liquid. He brandishes it at me and says,

"Anti-plastic!"

"Anti-Plastic?" I repeat dumbly.

"Ani-plastic!" The Doctor walks towards the doors of the TARDIS and steps out. I follow after him and gasp when I see that we truly have moved to a completely different area. And it's dark. How could it be night so quickly?

"First I just need to find it," I hear the Doctor say, and he begins to pace. I follow him with my eyes as he talks, "How can you hide something that big in a city so small?"

"Hide what?"

"The transmitter. The consciousness is controlling every bit of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."

"What does it looks like then?"

"Like a transmitter."

"Yeah, that doesn't help me, oh wise one. Dumb it down for the human, kay."

"It would be round and massive. Somewhere slap bang in the middle of London. A huge metal circular structure. Like a dish, or a wheel." The Doctor describes, and I find it ironic that he's saying all this whilst standing in front of the London eye...hold on, fuck, it can't be that simple, can it?

I point at the London eye and say,

"Uh, Doctor."

"What?" he snaps distractedly as he continues to pace.

"Seriously, look behind you."

The Doctor turns and it appears to dawn on him.

"Ah, right," he spins back around to face me, "Fantastic!"

Then we're running. _**Again**_.

...

"Think of it," The Doctor says once we're standing beneath the London eye, "Every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the wires, the cables-"

"The dildo's, yeah, yeah, I get the picture. Plastic + Animated = Bad. Got it." I cut him off, not quite in the mood for a space man rant at the moment.

The Doctor mutters something about 'snark' again, and then says,

"Still, we've found the transmitter, the consciousness must be somewhere underneath."

"Well it ain't on top, we can be sure of that," I mutter to myself, hands on hips, staring up at the London eye.

I run over to the edge and point at a metal drain hatch,

"What about that door there?" I call over to the Doctor.

"Looks good to me!" The Doctor exclaims, and we both head down the stone steps towards the metal hatch.

The Doctor lifts the metal grill off and climbs down the steps, I follow quickly after him, against my better judgement. Although, since meeting the Doctor, every one of my survival instincts have gone haywire.

When I see the giant vat of gooey lava I ask the Doctor,

"Home made volcano?"

The Doctor shakes his head,

"Not quite. That's a living plastic creature."

I think I'd prefer a volcano.

"Can we speak to it?" I move closer to the vat, wondering if such a creature has a true understanding of language.

"I'm gonna try," The Doctor replies, and he shifts down a few steps closer to the gurgling lava creature.

"I seek audience with the Nestene consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the shadow proclamation."

Bullshit did that sentence make sense. I wonder if the plastic creature is making the same mental 'huh' face as I am.

The lava gurgles grumpily, or what I imagine lava would sound like if it were ever grumpy. And no, that thought didn't make any more sense to me than it did to you.

"Thank you. If I might have permission to approach." The Doctor says calmly. Hmm, I guess the Doctor speaks lava. It's as believable as anything else that's happened today.

My eyes widen in shock when I see Mickey and Rose down on a different metal platform, sitting together on the floor.

"Flipping hells bells!" I shout, and I run down the steps to meet them.

Rose and Micky grasp at me and I hug them tightly,

"What are you two doing here?"

"That thing down there!" Mickey points at the lava, "It can talk!"

Rose slaps my arm,

"Where the hell have you been?! That box...that blue box...it disappeared with you inside!"

I throw my hands up and say,

"I dunno, space stuff happened, ask him!" I point at the Doctor, who by the way looks particularly annoyed right now. Well too bad for him.

"Oh, no, don't _ask him_ ," The Doctor says, "Can you lot keep the domestic outside please?"

I glare at him and snap,

"It's not my fault the bloody lava kidnapped my sister and Mickey."

The Doctor gives me a look that could cut glass,

"It's not lava."

I wave a hand at him,

"I'd like to see you prove that."

"I'm busy!" The Doctor sputters.

"Then I guess we'll never know!" I shout back at him.

The Doctor snorts a laugh, and then moves to yet another platform, right in front of the lava (LAVA I SAY!), and he says,

"Am I addressing the consciousness?"

The lava bubbles at us, so I take that for a yes.

"Right, good," the Doctor says, "Now, you infiltrated this civilisation by means of warped, shunt technology." He smiles slightly, "So, may I suggest with the greatest of respect that you _shunt off_?"

Oh, don't piss off the volcano with stupid dad jokes. That's just tacky.

"What's going on?" Rose hisses at me, still grasping my arm. Mickey looks about two seconds from fainting, and I desperately hope he doesn't. I have neither the strength nor the inclination to drag him out of here.

I speak without looking away from the Doctor,

"Oh...you know...stuff..." I'm not even sure how to explain it to myself, let alone other people.

The lava gets growly and the Doctor argues,

"Don't give me that! It's an invasion, plain and simple, don't talk about constitutional rights."

When the lava starts gurgling loudly again, the Doctor exclaims angrily,

"I am talking! This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learned how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf, please, just go."

I gasp when two plastic mannequins come out of nowhere and grab the Doctor.

"Doctor!" I shout, and I move to help him. Rose tries to hold me back, but I break free of her hands and run towards the Doctor.

I'm grabbed by one of the mannequins just as they find the anti-plastic in the Doctor's pocket.

"That was just insurance, I wasn't gonna use it!" The Doctor struggles to escape the mannequins.

I try to get away from my own mannequin, but it's too strong.

The lava starts going crazy and I watch in horror as it reveals the TARDIS from behind a closed door.

"No, no, no, honestly no!" the Doctor cries frantically, "Yes that's my ship...no, that's not true! I was there, I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault!"

Rose and Mickey are at my side then, and they try to break me free from the mannequin. Bloody hell, death by volcano is looking more and more probable by the second.

I watch as the Doctor's face contorts in anguish, and pleads,

"I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!"

"Doctor, why is the lava scared?" I call out to him. I may not be a space man genius, but I know fear when I hear it.

"It's not lava!" he shouts back at me.

"Not the time Doctor!" I yell in exasperation.

"The Nestene's identified the TARDIS as superior technology. It's terrified!" the Doctor twists and fights the mannequins, real pain in his voice.

"What's it doing?" I feel my fear clutching at my nerves.

"It's started the invasion. Get out Ever! Get out all of you!" The Doctor shouts.

Like hell I will space boy!

A burst of what looks like lightning strikes up from the lava, skyward, and at the same time I finally manage to break free from the mannequin, shoving him down over the balcony. Rose is yelling into her phone.

"It's mum!" Rose waves the phone at me, "She's going late night shopping! The mannequins!"

For fucks sake!

"It's transmitting!" I hear the Doctor say.

"It's the end of the world!" Rose intones darkly.

I'm surrounded by pessimists. Right, looks like I'll have to sort this one.

I rush forwards, using momentum as my friend I shove at the mannequin holding onto the Doctor, who then flips the mannequin over the edge into the lava pot.

"I'll take that thank you," I say to the other mannequin and I snatch at the anti-plastic. When it won't budge I realise there's only one option. I clasp my arms around the mannequin and force us both over the edge.

The ani-plastic goes flying from the mannequin's hand right into the vat of lava, and I scream as I fall, taking the mannequin with me. Something grabs hold of my arm and stops me from falling any further though.

I look up in shock to see the Doctor's face. He's got my arm in a firm grip, half his body hanging over the edge.

The lava screams as the Doctor pulls me up, with the help of Rose and Mickey. When I'm on my feet again the Doctor is grinning at me, he takes my shoulders in his hands and says,

"Now we're in trouble."

Too right we are.

The building begins to explode and crack all around us. My heart beats like mad, fear and adrenaline rushing through my body like a drug.

We follow the Doctor up to the TARDIS and he unlocks the door. I find myself smiling despite everything as I close the door behind us.

"It's gonna blow!" the Doctors says as he starts fiddling with the control panel.

"Then get moving and disappear us the hell out of here!" I retort, running up to the middle of the TARDIS.

The Doctor gives me that manic grin again and says,

"Righto!"

That whirring sound comes to life, and I can't help but laugh. Yes, yes, yes!

Seconds later we've moved from inside the falling building to somewhere else in London. Mickey is the first to rush for the door, and he throws himself outside. Rose yanks at my hand and pulls me outside too.

"Call mum!" I tell her, worried now that the mannequins might have gotten to her before we could call meltdown on the vat of lava.

Rose takes out her phone and dials mum, who picks up on the first few rings.

"Mum!" we say at the same time.

" _Oh, sweat heart, don't leave the house! Don't let your sister go anywhere! There were these things...shooting at people and-_ " Rose hangs up the phone and we both sigh in relief.

Rose rushes over to a distraught looking Mickey,

"Useless, you are, honestly" I point at him.

I turn when I hear the Doctor's voice,

"Nestene consciousness? Easy."

I scoff at him and say,

"Yeah, and which one of us saved the world again?"

The Doctor regards me carefully and replies,

"You did. Thank you for..."

"Saving your life?"

"Yeah. That."

"You're welcome space boy."

"Right then, I'll be off," the Doctor says, slapping his hands together. He meets my eyes then, "Unless...well...you could come with me."

What?

No, really though, _what_?

"In the TARDIS," I say slowly, "You and me?"

"This box doesn't just travel through London you know. It can go anywhere in the universe. Free of charge." The Doctor says pleasantly, although there's an intense look to his eyes that I don't quite understand. Yet.

"Don't!" Mickey says, "He's an alien. He's a _thing_."

"You could have died!" Rose adds, although she just sounds resigned more than anything.

"This is a one person invite only," The Doctor says to me, "Just you."

Something in the way he looks at me...something about the TARDIS...something about how amazing it felt to finally be using my life for a real purpose...I need more of it. I can't go back now, it's too late.

"Yes," I say, the word is out of my mouth before I can stop it.

"You could stay here," the Doctor starts, "Fill your life with sleep, and food and work-"

"Doctor...yes...I said yes!" I laugh at the surprise on the Doctor's face.

"Ah...right...are you sure?" He asks me, sounding curious for some reason.

I've never wanted anything more in my entire life than to get into that box with the Doctor. It scares me how much I want it. But I do.

"Ever...no...you can't be serious," Rose says, a pained look on her face.

I turn to my sister and shake my head,

"I'm sorry...so sorry Ro...but I need to do this," before my sister can reply I'm facing the Doctor again, "I'm sure, Doctor, show me the universe."

The Doctor grins, and it reminds me of watching the sun rise from a distance. It gives me the same feeling in the pit of my stomach anyway.

"If it helps...the TARDIS can also travel in time."

Shut your face!

"That had better be true!" I fight the urge to scream like a twelve year old idiot.

"Off we go then," the Doctor says, and he gestures for me to come inside the TARDIS.

"No, please, don't go!" Mickey cries, and he takes hold of my hand.

I meet Rose's eyes, and in them I see a level of understanding I don't think we've ever shared before. Rose forces Mickey to let go of my hand, and she says to me,

"Go. I'll look after mum. Just go."

I reach out and take her hand, squeezing it once before letting it drop from mine. There's nothing else left to say. I have to go. And she has to stay. _For now_.

I run towards the TARDIS. The Doctor. My future.

Alright universe, my name is Everlyna Tyler, otherwise known as the Unicorn, and my mind is ready to be blown.


	2. The End of the world

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.

"Right then Ever Tyler, you tell me, where do you want to go," the Doctor says, "Backwards or forwards in time? It's your choice."

I raise an eyebrow, excitement bubbling in my stomach like mad.

"Oh, it's my choice now is it?"

The Doctor smirks a little and says,

"This once, yeah. Don't get used to it."

I hold my hands up,

"Wouldn't dream of it Doctor."

"So, what's it gonna be then?" The Doctor starts twisting and playing around with things on the console.

I think about it for a moment, but to be honest the magnitude of the decision makes my head spin. I flip a coin inside my mind and say,

"Forwards."

The Doctor powers up the TARDIS and it starts to make that whirring noise that I've quickly come to love.

"How far?" he asks me.

Jesus, not more choices.

"Um...one million years!" God knows if planet earth will still exist then. Actually that thought creeps me out a little.

The Doctor grins at me and says,

"Well if we're going that far then we might as well go a little further."

I find myself grinning back,

"Well, you're the expert."

"Hmmm, now she admits it," The Doctor says.

I scoff at him and mimic his tone,

"Yeah, well, don't get used to it."

The Doctor starts playing with a few more bits and pieces, and the TARDIS rumbles.

"Right then, hold on tight."

I grasp the console of the TARDIS firmly and ready my stance.

"Ready," I nod at him.

With a few more crashes, bangs and, strangely, a bell, we stop.

"Where the hell are we then?" I ask, that excited feeling coming back full force.

The Doctor just gestures for the door. I eye him suspiciously, but I'm too giddy to insult him anymore.

I walk slowly over to the door and outside, barely pausing to consider the consequences. Damn that feels good.

We appear to be on some kind of ship, and my attention is immediately grasped by the sight outside of the massive window. It's the earth. The fucking earth. I'm in space! I'm in space, and there's the frigging earth and the...frankly far too molten sun.

I don't notice the Doctor until he's standing by my side. What's outside this window is far too amazing to deny it any of my attention right now.

"You lot," the Doctor says, "You spend all your time thinking about dying. Like you're gonna get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take the time to imagine the impossible. That maybe you survive."

The sun burns so bright...it's beautiful...and terrifying at the same time.

"We do like our doomsday scenarios," I say distractedly. "When is this?" I ask him.

The Doctor crosses his arms and replies,

"This is the year 5.5/Apple/26. Five billion years in your future. And this is the day...hold on," he checks his watch. I almost snicker at the fact that the Doctor even wears a watch.

I gasp when the sun almost seems to explode right in front of me.

"This is the day the sun expands." The Doctor explains, he looks down at me, "Welcome to the end of the world."

Dramatic. Nice. Always good to have a bit of doom along with your time travel

...

_"Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that platform one forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion. Earth death is scheduled for 15:39, followed by drinks in the Manchester suite."_

"Do I get to meet some aliens now?" I fight the urge to dance on the spot. It's very difficult.

"You've already met an alien," the Doctor frowns, pointing at himself.

I wave a hand,

"Yeah, but I mean a proper alien."

The Doctor gives me a wounded look,

"I _am_ a proper alien."

"Alright, alright, don't get your pants tied in a knot," I roll my eyes as we walks through the space ship. SPACE SHIP! Or should that be space base? I'll have to start learning the proper terms and stuff.

"You leave my pants out of this," The Doctor says.

I feel like we've got off track somehow.

"What's all this for then? Are the aliens plotting to...I dunno...use the power of the sun expanding to...take over the universe." I watch the Doctor expectantly.

The Doctor arches an eyebrow at me,

"You have a very dark mind. No, this is more like an observation deck."

"For watching the planet burn?" I ask.

"Yep, the great and the good are gathering," the Doctor takes out his blue bleep bleep thingy and uses it on a door.

"Um, why would someone want to watch a planet burn?"

"Fun!"

Brilliant.

The door opens and I follow the Doctor inside.

"Mind you, when I say the good and the great, what I really mean are the rich," the Doctor says.

Ain't it always the way.

"How longs the planet got?" I ask, "You know...before...boom!"

There's a larger window inside this room and I quickly go to look out of it. I want to soak in as much as possible. It truly is amazing.

"About half an hour," the Doctor says, "Then the planet gets roasted."

I turn to the Doctor, a worrying thought crossing my mind,

"There aren't any people down there, right?"

The Doctor smiles at me slightly,

"Nope, it's empty. They've all gone. All left."

Thank christ for that.

"Good, because I already saved the earth about an hour ago, I don't fancy doing it again just yet."

The Doctor leans in close and says,

"Welcome to my world."

"Who the hell are you?" a pompous voice from behind us says.

Rude.

A man in a gold suit and a funny swimming hat comes marching up to us.

He's also blue.

So freakin' great!

"Oh, that's nice, thank you," the Doctor says.

"But how did you get in," the blue swimming hat says indignantly, "this is a maximum hospitality zone!"

"Ok, woah, calm down mate," I make calming gestures with my hands, "no need to have spaz attack."

"But the guests have disembarked," the blue swimming hat all but screeches. Is it an alien thing to ignore people and their suggestions? I'm starting to think it is if blue, the Doctor and the pissy volcano are anything to go by.

"No, that's me!" the Doctor says, and he takes out a sort of flip wallet thing with a blank but of paper inside. He brandishes it at the blue swimming hat like a weapon. "I'm a guest. Look, I've got an invitation. Look there, you see, it's fine. The Doctor plus one. I'm the Doctor, and this is Ever Tyler, my plus one," he gestures at me. I bat his hand away and try to get a better look at the blank paper.

"Is that alright?" the Doctor adds, his voice taking on that fake polite quality.

"Well, obviously," the blue swimming hat says, "apologies et cetera. If you're on board, we better start."

Start what, the parade? I hope there's a parade.

The blue swimming hat walks away. I wonder what it would take to get a man like that to smile. Or skip.

The Doctor shows me the blank paper and says,

"The paper is slightly psychic. It shows them whatever I want them to see."

I scrunch my face up, trying to see what he means...but...it just looks blank to me. I figure maybe it only looks like something to the person the Doctor wants to see it. At least I hope that's the case.

"He's blue." I look pointedly at the blue swimming hat.

"Yep," the Doctor nods once.

"Brilliant. But he's also wearing a swimming hat."

"It's not a swimming hat."

"And you know that because you're well versed in all fashion intergalactically from every time zone ever?" I give his very 90s outfit choice a once over.

"It's not a swimming hat."

"Just because you repeat something doesn't make it automatically explained."

"Are you like this all of the time?"

"No, sometimes I'm asleep."

"Noted."

"We have in attendance," the blue swimming hat announces, "the Doctor and Ever Tyler."

I wave enthusiastically at him. He does not appear amused.

Suddenly a bunch of little blue aliens in darth vader outfits come waddling out from..somewhere. I refrain from making smurf jokes, mostly because I'm not sure if that would be racist or not.

"And now, might I introduce the next honoured guest, representing the forest of Cheem, we have...trees! Namely Jabe, Lute and Coffa."

I look towards the doorway just as three tree-people come walking through it. Yes! I always wanted to talk to a tree. No, genuinely, I really have always wanted to. Hey, don't judge me. Some people want to be rich, some people want to be loved, I just want to talk to a tree. I'll be like freakin' Pocahontas.

"There will be an exchange of gifts, representing peace."

I nudge the Doctor and whisper,

"Do we have gifts?"

The Doctor makes a face and pats himself down before saying,

"Um, no...don't worry though."

"But then how will they know that we come in peace?"

"I'll wing it."

I give him another suspicious look,

"Oh, right, now I feel better."

"Next from the solicitors Jolco and Jolco, we have the Moxx of Balhoon," the blue swimming hat announces.

My attention is snagged once again by a big fat buddha alien as he swooshes in on his electronic dance circle. It's as weird as it sounds folks, trust me.

"And next from financial family seven, we have the adherents of the repeated meme."

Four aliens in cloaks come shuffling in, and I do mean shuffling. I haven't seen shuffling like that since I saw Mickey and his mates trying to dance with their jeans halfway down their arses.

A bunch of other aliens come in after that, and to be honest it all starts to become a bit of a blur.

The first to approach us are the trees (YES!), and the princess tree regards us both with a slight smile,

"A gift of peace. I bring you a cutting of my grandfather." One of the guard-like tree's hands over a little cup of soil with a mini tree inside it.

I quickly move to take her grandfather and bring him close to my face so that I can whisper,

"Hello, my name's Ever."

Grandfather plant does not reply. But maybe he's just shy.

The Doctor slides me a worrying glance, but says to princess tree,

"Thank you...yes...gifts...um..."

Again, I feel so much confidence in his ability to improvise.

The Doctor clears his throat then and says,

"I give you in return...air from my lungs."

What? That ain't a gift you crazy old badger!

I watch in horrified fascination as the Doctor breathes all over princess tree. She appears to like it. Must be an alien thing.

"How...intimate," princess tree says.

How weird and stupid, I think she means.

"There's more where that came from," the Doctor says, sounding very pleased with himself. I may need to knock him down a few pegs if this attitude continues.

"I'll bet there is," princess tree replies intensely before moving to walk away with her two tree bodyguards.

I look up at the Doctor and say,

"You're a weirdo."

"Says the one who just spoke to a shrub," the Doctor scoffs back at me.

"At least I didn't breathe all over it," I mutter.

"Judgy," the Doctor grins at me.

Prat.

"Don't think just because you're an alien I won't thump you one."

"Yes, you're very threatening standing there with your new best friend the shrub," the Doctor drawls.

"Jealous!" I accuse him.

"The sponsor for the main event, please welcome...the face of Boe," the blue swimming hat announces with flourish.

I have to stop myself from gaping as a big tank slides in with a giant floating face in it. Majorly cool.

The Moxx of Balhoon comes rolling up to us next and the Doctor breathes on him. Still weird.

The blue tubby alien says in a tiny voice,

"My felicitations upon this historical happenstance. I bring you the gift of bodily salivas." And then he hocks one at my face.

"Bitch just spat on me," I point at the Moxx of Balhoon.

The Doctor turns an apologetic look on the blue alien,

"Please excuse my friend, she is...troubled," he taps his temple with one finger.

I glare at him with full glaratude.

The adherents of the repeated meme are next and they hand over a metal ball about the size of my fist. Yes, this seems like a good thing to throw at the Doctor's face at some point.

"In memory of this dying world," the blue swimming hat calls, "we call forth...the last human! The lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen."

I hold in a gasp again when a stretched piece of skin inside a metal frame comes rolling in through the entry doors. Two forensic scientists follow after her with water guns.

Even bloody stranger the stretched piece of skin starts to talk!

"Oh, now don't stare! I know it's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin taken away and look at the difference! I don't look a day over 2,000. Moisturise me, moisturise me!"

The scientists with water guns start to spray the...Cassandra.

Things just keep getting freakier and freakier. I squeeze the Doctors arm and whisper,

"This is so great!"

Lady Cassandra brings out an ostrich egg and a Juke box then, and the hall is suddenly filled with music.

"Earth death, in thirty minutes," the blue swimming hat tells us.

"Huh, earth death, sounds a bit ominous," I murmur to grandfather tree.

"Stop talking to the _shrub_ ," the Doctor says.

"Stop talking to _me_ ," I counter easily.

...

"So, you gonna tell me who you are then?" I ask the Doctor whilst swinging my legs over the big step. I removed myself from the room of many many aliens and went back to where the TARDIS is parked.

"I'm just the Doctor," is all the reply I get from Mr. breathe on everyone mc shrub hater.

"That's a no then," I mutter. I don't even know why it matters to me who he is, it didn't matter before. But somehow, seeing all those aliens, made me think about how little I know about the universe. I never realised how tiny my world was until I met the Doctor. I'm not sure I like the feeling either.

"Will you tell me what planet you're from then?" I ask carefully.

The Doctor scoffs at me,

"Well, it's not as if you'd know where it is."

"Good thing I didn't ask for a bloody guided tour. Do not get pissed off with me just because I'm asking questions. If you don't want people to ask you things then you shouldn't walk around with a look on your face that tells me and the whole universe that you hold all the answers." I throw back at him.

"What does it matter where I'm from?" the Doctor argues, sounding truly frustrated now. Well good, he should feel the way I do right now.

"It matters to me because I've put my life in your hands!" I jump down off of the big step and walk closer to the window. I let my anger slowly fade as I watch the sun expanding and the world rippling with heat.

Apparently the Doctor isn't ready to leave it at that though because he joins me again and snaps harshly,

"If you're going to travel with me then you need to understand one thing-this is who I am. Right here, right now. That's all I can tell you because that's all there is for you to know!"

I turn on him suddenly and say stiffly,

"That's a lie. Don't you dare lie to me again. I'll put up with you not telling me who you are or where you came from or why your eyes are so God damn sad all the time. What I won't put up with is you lying to me!"

The Doctor stares at me for a long time, and he's giving me that searching look again. Eventually though he says,

"You are so human."

I'm not even sure if that's an insult or not coming from him. The bastard.

To distract myself from my growing irritation, as I know it won't help anyone least of all me, I take out my phone. Just for kicks I try to find a signal, when I obviously don't find one, I sigh.

"Know anywhere this side of the universe where I can get a time travel-appropriate phone?"

The Doctor seems to deflate somewhat, and he takes my phone,

"Tell you what, with some jiggery-pokery..."

"Wow, sounds like your smarticles rating just went down a few notches," I tease him.

"Jiggery-pokery is a very technical term I'll have you know," The Doctor replies whilst fiddling with my phone.

"I know that, I took Fatin," I say mock indignantly.

The Doctor peers at me and asks,

"Fatin?"

"Yeah, like Latin, but better."

Something seems to dawn on the Doctor,

"Oh...Fake-Latin...Fatin...right."

I pat his arm slowly,

"Yep, you got dropped on your head a few times from the spaceship as a child, I knew it."

The Doctor ignores me again, which I've come to realise he does a lot when he's not sure how to respond. He fiddles around with my phone a little more and eventually hands it back to me.

"There you go."

I take the phone and frown,

"Are you serious?"

"Try it," is all he says.

There's no way...I bring up Rose's number and hit 'call'. A few heartbeats later I hear Rose's voice,

"Ever! Is that you? Are you alright?"

I honestly can't speak for a few moments, and my heart clenches inside my chest. Eventually I manage to get out a weak,

"I'm fine."

"What's going on? Is the Doctor with you?" Rose sounds a little bit close to frantic. I've never heard her sound that way before.

"Don't panic...I'm...alright...just...I met a tree princess," a nervous bout of laughter spills out of my mouth.

"What?!"

"Gotta go Ro...please don't worry about me," I hang up before she can reply.

I turn to the Doctor,

"Bloody hell...I take it back...you've got ALL the smarticles!"

The Doctor grins and opens his mouth to reply, but before he can the whole space station rumbles and shakes.

"That's not supposed to happen," the Doctor says.

"Is this part where something bad happens and we save the day?" I ask him.

The Doctor spares me a small smirk and replies,

"If we're lucky."

Brilliant!

...

"That wasn't a gravity pocket. I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that," The Doctor says when we get back to the main room.

Princess tree comes up behind us and the Doctor asks her,

"What do you think Jabe?"

"I have no idea," she replies. Well I could have said that.

"Where's the engine room?"

"I don't know...but the maintenance duct is behind your suite, I could show you," princess tree looks over at me and adds, "And your wife."

"Oh, she not my wife," the Doctor says a little defensively.

"Partner?"

"No."

"Concubine."

"Nope."

I wave a hand between them,

"Um, hello, I am fully aware what concubine means, and I'm officially offended," I say to princess tree, "Technically speaking he kidnapped me from my home planet. The space cops are on the look out as we speak."

"I didn't kidnap her," the Doctor reassure princess tree.

I lean forward and whisper,

"That's exactly what a kidnapper would say."

The Doctor frowns at me,

"Do you mind?"

I glare openly at him,

"Yes, I do. Go have fun with Jabe, you crazy kids be safe mind. I'm gonna go have a word with the living skin sample, kay."

"As you like," the Doctor says.

I flip him the bird before stalking off. Annoying space boy git.

"Soon the sun will blossom into a red giant, and my home will die," Cassandra says to me. Not exactly helpful, considering I asked where the loo's were, but I'll take it.

"Where are all the other humans then? They can't have just gone poof one day." I watch as the sun burns so damn brightly that it hurts to look, but I can't help myself. It shouldn't be beautiful, I mean, the sun is dying, or at least destroying everything around it...but it truly is spectacular.

"They say man-kind has touched every star in the sky," Cassandra answers mysteriously.

"So there's load of us-I mean, humans out there."

"I am the last pure human in existence," stretchy Madonna says, "The others..."

"Got jiggy with aliens?"

"Yes, if you want to be crass."

"I do. I always want to be crass."

"They call themselves New-humans and Proto-humans and Didi-humans, even Human-ish! But you know what I call them-"

"Nope, lay it on me, I'm sure it'll be greatly insulting."

"-mongrels!"

"Yes, score one for Ever!"

"You're a very pretty girl, Ever," Cassandra drawls, and I can feel the but coming even before she adds, "have you ever considered surgery? A bit of nipping and tucking could really flatten you out."

Oh, bitch wants to play, alright then, here we go.

"I'd slap you for that, but you'd need a cheek first. And a face. And a head. You don't have any of those things anymore, you living piece of cling film!"

"Oh, what do you know," Cassandra scoffs at me.

"I know that being human is about a lot more than just surviving for the sake of it," I snap at her, and with that I storm out of the room once more.

...

When I wake up my head feels like it's splitting in two, and I reach a hand up to rub at my temple. Flip, what the hell is going on now?

" _Sunfilter descending._ "

A sudden flash of white light has me up and running for the door. I bang it, trying and failing to open it.

"What the...open this door right now!"

Behind me I can already feel heat at my back, and a fist of fear starts to unfurl inside my stomach.

" _Sunfilter descending._ "

The shields on the big window aren't working and my panic snaps and screams at me to get out, get, out, get out!

Then I hear the Doctors voice,

"Is anyone in there?"

"Yes there bloody well is, space boy! Open the damn door!" I shout at him.

"Oh, well, it would be you."

"Shut up!"

"Hold on give me two tics."

" _Sunfilter descending._ "

"We don't have tics!"

I slump against the door in relief when I hear the overhead tannoy voice say,

" _Sunfilter rising._ "

Then it just as quickly changes it's fucking mind again.

" _Sinfilter descending._ "

"Doctor! This is not even a little bit funny!"

"I'm not trying to be funny. The computer is fighting back!"

Oh, fantastic!

"Fix it then!"

"I AM!"

"Fix it faster!"

" _Sunfilter rising._ "

I should bloody well think so!

The whole door has been melted to the point where it won't open.

"Just hold on, wait here," the Doctor calls through the door.

"As appose to what? I'll be sure not to drive away in my SODDING spaceship!"

When I get out of here, I'm going to kill that man.

" _Shields failing. Heat level at critical_."

Make that **_if_** I get out of here.

...

"Are you alright?" I ask the Doctor. He's got his pissed at the world face on right now, and that scares me more than the prospect of being singed to ashes did.

He saved the day, managed to get the shields up again. But it seems it was at a cost. A terrible one. The tree princess is dead. And so is the blue swimming hat. It makes me feel sad even though I didn't know them. But more than that I feel empty. Death has always had that effect on me.

"I'm fine," the Doctor snaps unconvincingly, "I'm full of ideas. I'm bristling with 'em." Yeah, this doesn't sound good to me. He continues sounding even more worked up, "Idea one, teleportation through 5,000 degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden nearby."

The Doctor stalks over to Juke box and reaches inside, underneath a panel he rips out a small electronic device.

"Idea number three, if you're as clever as me, then a teleportation-feed can be reversed." The Doctor twisted the device in the right way and Cassandra, the apparent ring leader of all this, reappears in front of us.

"The last human," the Doctor says, and there's a strange quality to his voice that I don't like.

"So, you passed my little test. Bravo! This makes you eligible to join the...human club." Cassandra tries pointlessly.

"People have died Cassandra, you murdered them," the Doctor intones darkly.

"It depends on your definition of people. And that's enough of a techincality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries! Take me to court then, Doctor, and watch me smile, and cry and-"

There's a strange creaking sound and I step forward. Cassandra's..skin, begins to tighten.

"You're creaking, Cassandra," the Doctor says.

"Oh," Cassandra says in a panicked voice, "I'm drying out...moisturise me...moisturise me!"

Cassandra's voice rises in pain and fear and anger,

"Have pity! Doctor!"

I turn to the Doctor and say,

"Don't let this happen, Doctor. Help her."

When the Doctor responds his tone is cold and unyielding,

"Everything has it's time and everything dies."

"That isn't your choice," I reply firmly.

"I'm...too... _young_ ," Cassandra screeches, and then, before my very eyes, she explodes dramatically, skin and blood splatters everywhere.

Empty. I feel empty.

...

I stand before the massive windows, watching bits of the earth drift past like leaves being swept away by the breeze. I needed to be alone for a while.

When the Doctor takes his place beside me, I don't look at him. Can't. Not yet.

"The earth...just like that...we missed it. _Its just gone_." I say. Maybe to him. To myself. To the universe even.

The Doctor reaches out a hand to me and says,

"Come with me."

I stare at his hand for a long time before taking it.

The Doctor takes me...home. Or at least London. I'm not sure if that's home anymore. Not after today.

I stand amongst the throng of people and try to let go of the awful things that happened only moments ago, and yet billion of years in the future at the same time. It's an unsettling thought.

"You think it'll last forever," the Doctor says, "people and cars and concrete. But it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky."

"I know," because I do.

"My planet's gone," the Doctor tells me after a long pause, and I turn to him suddenly, "It's dead. It burned, like the earth. It's just rocks and dust. Before it's time." There's that deep sadness in his eyes again. The pain is more pronounced now, like the whole universe revolves around it. Maybe it does, what do I know?

"Will you tell me what happened?" I ask carefully, not wanting to push too far. I'm not even sure if I want to hear it.

"There was a war, and we lost," the Doctor tells me.

"Who did you fight?"

When the Doctor says nothing, I try a different question.

"Your people, what are they?"

"I'm a Time lord."

"Where are they?"

"I am the last."

"The only survivor."

"Yes."

"That...clears up a lot actually."

The Doctor frowns at me,

"Clears up what exactly?"

I eye him speculatively for a few, very long, and intense moments. I smile slightly and reply,

"Do you fancy some ice cream?"

The Doctor's eyes widen in surprise,

"What?"

"It's just...I'm feeling like some ice cream after all that heat."

"Your mind is...strange."

"Your face is strange."

The Doctor laughs, but then his expression becomes deadly serious,

"You've seen what it's like now...how dangerous it can be...do you want to go home?"

Home. The word tastes like ash and laughter and...bleh. No, I can't go home yet. Not even if I wanted to, which I don't. Not even if he left me here and went off without me, which he won't.

"Nah, but we better stock up on some ice cream before we leave." I take hold of the Doctor's arm and pull him along with me.

"Alright then, there's no freezer on the TARDIS though," the Doctor warns me.

I shake my head in disbelief,

"That whole massive spaceship and not one freezer?"

"There's a pool," the Doctor offers.

"Ok, now I know you're an alien. I don't know how they do it in space, but we don't store our ice cream in pools down here on earth."

The Doctor and I laugh as we walk through the crowd, and a little bit of that emptiness inside me fades away.

Right then, onward and upward!


	3. The Unquiet dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.

"Christ!" I call out between fits of laughter.

The Doctor helps me to my feet and says,

"You're telling me. Are you alright?"

I wave him off, and he goes to try and settle the TARDIS. I swear he doesn't actually know how to fly this thing worth a damn.

"I'm fine. Not damaged any more than usual. Did we make it?" I reassert my clothing and move closer to stand by the Doctor.

"I did it!" the Doctor announces, "Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860."

"Nice work." I nod at him, and smile to myself when I realise, "It's christmas!"

The Doctor grins and gestures towards the TARDIS doors,

"All yours!"

I run a hand through my hair, unable to believe that for the second time I'll be stepping out into a completely different time period. The future was one thing, I didn't understand most of that. But this...this is my world's past.

"It's amazing! I'll be the only twenty first century girl to see 1860!" My old History teach would be so jealous right now. Serves her right for confiscating my bubble gum every lesson.

"That we know of," the Doctor teases.

I roll my eyes at him,

"If you tell me there are other young women roaming around through time travel with strange alien men...well, I'll have to start some kind of club, won't I?"

"Remember to bring cake to any and all club meetings, and I might even come." The Doctor moves towards the door.

I chase after him and flatten myself against the door. I look up into his face and tilt my head. His eyes meet mine and that same sadness practically seeps out of him and into me.

"Travelling with you is gonna ruin me for any other kind of living, you know."

"It's not a bad life in the TARDIS," the Doctor shrugs.

I snort out a laugh and shove at the door, opening it and almost falling outside. The Doctor grabs me at the last minute though and yanks me back inside. I feel a brief flash of freezing cold.

"Oi, oi, you can't go out like that!," he looks pointedly at my jeans and vest top.

I smooth down my clothes and sniff at him,

"I look stunning and you know it."

The Doctor taps my nose and shakes his head,

"Not for 1860, you don't. Right, now, off you go to the wardrobe, get changed. Quick as you like."

"You mean the wardrobe next to the arcade room, or the one that has a passageway to Narnia?" I ask, an eyebrow crooked.

"Don't be smart," The Doctor warns, "That's my job."

I wink at him and dash away to get some 19th century clothing. I don't want to be a spectacle or something. They might burn me for being a witch. Did they do that in the 19th century, or was it just flogging? Hanging?

Jesus, I guess my History teacher Mrs Gilbert was right, I should have listened more in class.

I look through all the ridiculous clothes the Doctor has stashed away, I mean where did he get a lime green cardigan from? With tinsel stuck to it. Maybe one of his alien mates gave it to him for Christmas.

Eventually I find a dress that looks very old timey to me, but then, I'm not exactly an expert on 19th century fashion. It's a beautiful enough dress though. The skirt part of the dress is made of a thick dark blue fabric, and the top part looks a lot like a corset, which is covered in black lace. I also find some nice leather high heeled boots. I decide to wear a black cape with it just to make sure I don't look like a prostitute.

I also just really want to wear a cape.

I don't even think it's called a cape. Can cape's have hoods?

Bah, who cares? Not me. Off we go.

I pull my hair half up, but let the rest of it stay down. My hair's always been curlier than Rose's, so it's harder to keep control of. I do find a nice blue flower that matches the dress to put in my hair.

When I'm all tarted up I go in search of the Doctor. He's easy to spot.

He's the idiot pissing around with the TARDIS mechanics.

"Oi, space boy, you ready or what?" I call out to him.

The Doctor turns and looks up at me. His dark eyes widen a little and he says,

"Blimey!"

I point at him,

"Oh don't you start."

The Doctor surprises me though by adding,

"You look beautiful."

He's so bloody annoying.

"Come off it." I roll my eyes.

The Doctor stares at me a little longer and replies,

"No...no, you really do look wonderful...considering."

Oh there it is. I knew that was coming.

"Considering what exactly you great big nerd?" I cross my arms and level him with a penetrating look.

The Doctor stops staring, finally, and goes back to fiddling with his wires and rubbish.

"Considering that you're human."

"Oh, because humans are so ugly compared to other aliens. I'll thank you to remember that I've met other aliens, and none of them could pull of this dress." I gesture down at my dress with a flourish of my hands.

When the Doctor doesn't respond I sigh and add,

"Are you going to get all jazzed up then or not?"

The Doctor grins at me, always a bad sign, and says,

"I put on a new jumper. Come on, lets go."

The Doctor hops up and leads the way to the door. He pauses dramatically before opening it and I supress the urge to beat him with my new silk gloves.

All thoughts of violence leave my mind as soon as I step outside. The ground is covered in snow and there's a chill in the air. It's a fresh kind of chill though, one of those feelings that go right down to your bones.

I love this part. Here I am, just an ordinary person, travelling back in time to 1860. Wearing a CAPE!

My life is so boss right now.

The Doctor comes up beside me and offers his arm.

"You ready for this?" he asks.

I take another moment to look around, and then nod at him. I take his arm and say,

"More than you could possibly know."

"Here we go then," The Doctor grins that manic alien grin of his again, "History in the making."

...

I've been kidnapped.

Yeah, I'm not shitting you. I've been bloody time travel hijacked!

One minute I was trying to save an old lady from being loaded into an olden timey hearse, the next minute I find myself alone and waking up with a splitting headache. Oh, the Doctor is going to hear about this. In fact he's gonna get a bloody good earful. He better have come after me, the sod.

I've been led down on a wooden table with a red cloth spilling over the sides. I sit up slowly, massaging at my head. My brain feels like it's full of cotton wool and I blink a couple of times to regain my full focus.

A moment later I wish I'd stayed knocked out.

The moan from behind me sounds almost demonic, and I turn around slowly, hoping it's just my imagination. Or that maybe I've been drugged. Aside from the chloroform I mean.

But nope, when I look behind me I see a bloke sitting up inside a coffin. His face is blue. And not the fun alien kind that I've come to both respect and admire. Nah, this kind of blue is creepy and...death-y.

That's not a word, I know, but be fair, I've just woken up in 1860 something. My mind map isn't quite working at all functioning levels yet.

"Hello...um...you feeling ok mate?" I ask the moaning man who is clearly not 'ok'.

The man makes remarkable progress by climbing out of the flimsy coffin and stumbling towards me zombie stylie.

I am so beyond not amused right now.

I jump up off the table and make a run for the door.

"Be gone foul moanatron!" I shout back over my shoulder. Because sometimes you just have to ask nicely.

The door is locked. Obviously.

Just when I think things couldn't get any worse, a second set of moaning starts up. I turn around just in time to see the same old lady from earlier sit up in her own coffin.

I am not getting the good feels here, folks.

Where the frak is the Doctor?

The old lady shows surprisingly agility by jumping out of her coffin and coming for me along side Bob. That's what I've decided to call him.

Since they aren't moving that fast I'm not too worried about their murdering skills, but still...

"Open this bloody door!" I shout, giving the door a good load of banging.

When Bob gets too close I give him a good kick in the chest. He stumbles back a bit and crashes into Silvia. She looks like a Silvia to me. They keep coming though, which is disconcerting to say the least.

Bob makes a grab for me and I scream in his face, the blue bastard. I will not be manhandled God damn it!

I give Bob a good shove and he trips backwards over a foot stool. Right, one down, one old lady to go.

I don't know about all of you, but I feel empowered.

I dodge around Silvia and snatch one of those fire poker things up from next to the fire place. Then I climb back onto the table and brandish the 'weapon' at Silvia and a now standing again Bob.

I make a few wavy motions with the fire poker and announce,

"Yeh may take me life, you'll never take MY FREEDOM!"

As if on cue, the Doctor crashes in through the door like James Bond. He takes in the scene with one sweep of his eyes and then sighs at me,

"I should have known it was you shouting out Braveheart quotes."

I narrow my eyes at him and accuse,

"You're late!"

The Doctor moves forward then, pushing Bob and Silvia out of the way. He helps me down from the table and we both move swiftly towards the door. A bloke with a nice beard comes up behind us and stares at Bob and Silvia. He shakes his head in disbelief and says,

"It's a prank. Must be. We're under some kind of mesmeric influence."

"No we're not," The Doctor says, "The dead are walking."

Then he smiles at me,

"Hi."

I slap his chest,

"I'll give you 'hi' in a minute."

The Doctor gives me a wounded expression,

"What have I done now?"

I poke him in the chest with the fire poker,

"You let me get accosted."

The Doctor pulls a very unconvincing apologetic face,

"Yeah, well, next time don't go swanning off alone then."

That's it, heads are gonna roll!

But first...

"Who's your friend?" I gesture back at beardy.

The Doctor actually grins at that,

"Charles Dickens."

I frown at beardy, and then at the Doctor,

"You're ridiculous," I tell him.

But the Doctor is ignoring me again, and is instead questioning my new dead friends.

"My name's the Doctor. Who are you then? What do you want?"

I'm guessing the answer isn't that they want some tea and bourbons.

Suddenly an almost childlike chorus of voices says,

" _Failing! Open the rift. We're dying_."

A bit pessimistic, but ok.

" _Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain_."

More bad luck.

" _Help us_."

No.

Suddenly Bob and Silvia look up and a blue light comes bursting out of their mouths. I hear a weird shrieking sound as the blue light flows upwards. A moment later Bob and Silvia go limp and fall forwards.

Weird. Like, for real.

...

"Right then," I brandish the fire poker once more at the old man with the very impressive sideburns, "You drugged me, hijacked me, and left me to get molested by Bob and Silvia. I want to know what the hell you were playing at!"

The Doctor looks amused by my outburst, but a quick glare from me soon wipes that look off his face.

After the whole moaning Murtle incident we were all taken through to a living room area. Miss Muffit, or whatever her name is, for whatever reason seems to think the situation calls for tea.

I like the thought, but I still don't appreciate being kidnapped.

"It's not my fault, it's this house!" Sideburns grumbles defensively. He looks around at us, all jibbery and shit. "It was always supposed to be haunted, but I didn't have any bother until about three months ago. The stiffs...um...I mean the dearly departed started getting restless."

"Tommyrot!" Charles Dickens says before taking a sip of tea.

I would be quite floored by the fact that I've just met Charles Dicken, as I'm quite a fan of his books, but somehow being attacked by dead people is taking up all my attention. I'll fan-girl later.

"You witnessed it!" Sideburns exclaims, "I can't keep the beggars down, Sir!"

"Rubbish! Complete nonsense." Dickens waves it away.

The situation descends into the Doctor and Dickens having a pissing match about ghosts or some shit. I don't know, I tuned out their manly pish posh.

I end up getting annoyed and banging my fire poker against the mantle piece. I say, or more grumble actually since my mouth is full of ginger biscuit,

"Alright, that's enough. I'm putting my foot down, no more silliness!"

Dickens, Sideburns and the Doctor all stare at me for a moment. I continue to eat my biscuit, and stare right back at them. Men, honestly.

Eventually the Doctor appears to shake it off and he addresses another question to sideburns,

"What about the gas?"

Sideburns gets all jumpy again and replies,

"That's new, sir. I never seen anything like that."

"Means it's getting stronger," The Doctor says thoughtfully, "and the rift is getting weaker. Something's trying to sneak through."

I really don't want to ask, but I do anyway.

"Go on then, what's a rift?"

The Doctor looks over at me and answers,

"A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place world and another," he nods at sideburns, "That's the cause of most ghost stories."

I frown at the Doctor,

"Wait...you mean it's like a portal?"

The Doctor gives me a look that clearly says he thinks I'm an idiot.

"No, it's a rift. A rip in time and space, like I said."

I hold up a hand before he can start rambling on about science rubbish,

"Yeah...but...it's basically a portal. Like in Stargate."

"No. Not like Stargate. It isn't a portal. It's the _rift_." The Doctor sounds rather frustrated now, which amuses me.

"Ok, fine, it's a rift.../portal." I hide a smirk behind my teacup.

The Doctor glares at me for a full seven seconds before turning away in what can only described as a space boy huff.

Ha!

Second round goes to Ever.

...

"This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in bigtown." Miss Muffit tells us.

Get ready for this folks...we...are having...A SEANCE!

Because fuck life!

We're all sitting around a table looking at each other awkwardly. It feels like I'm at the world's weirdest dinner party.

Miss Muffit is apparently 'psychic' because she grew up near the portal. I know right, that makes no sense at all. I tried getting the Doctor to explain it but he just started in on a scientific rant. I'm beginning to think he just makes it all up on the spot so he doesn't have to tell me anything.

"Come, we must all join hands," Miss Muffit says far too happily for my liking.

We move to do as we're told, but then for no reason Dickens gets the hump and stands up. He gruffles,

"I will not take part in this."

Hold on, is that an option? Can we just not do the séance? I was under the impression that there was no choice involved and that we had to. I feel lied to.

"Humbug," the Doctor says to Dickens cheerfully, "come on, open mind."

But Dickens ain't having none of that flack and he snips,

"This is exactly the kind of cheap mummery I strive to unmask," he scoffs, "Séances. Ha, nothing but luminious tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

I clear my throat before the Doctor can say something annoying, and glare at Dickens,

"Excuse me, now there's no need to be a meany bo beany about Miss Muffit, she's a very nice, honest, hard working girl. She just also happens to be able to read minds and stuff. Now, the more important thing is," I turn back to Miss Muffit, "are there actually any tambourines involved. Because if so, I would like to offer my tambourine skills."

Miss Muffit looks immediately flustered. The Doctor shakes his head at me,

"Right, you, stop being weird." He gestures at Dickens, "And you, sit down, we might need you later."

For what? Advice on how to grow a truly epic beard?

Dickens actually does sit down. Why? What is anyone's motivation here?

"Right, Gwenyth," the Doctor smiles at Miss Muffit, "go on, call out to them."

 _Them_. Hm.

Miss Muffit looks up slightly and says,

"Speak to us."

No. Don't. Go away.

Shoo.

"Are you there?"

Don't answer and she'll leave you alone.

Dickens rolls his eyes and I hide a smirk against my arm. The Doctor gives me a stern look and I poke my tongue out at him.

"Spirits, come."

Nah, she's joking.

"Speak to us that we may relieve your burden."

Unless your burdens are internal, in which case we'll give ghost busters a call.

Suddenly there are voices inside my head. Horrid shrill voices that don't even speak proper words.

"I feel them!" Miss Muffit announces.

"I bloody well feel them 'an all mate." I shoot the Doctor a look, but he isn't paying me any attention. Big surprise there.

When the blue mist appears, that's when I draw the line. Miss Muffit appears to be having some kind of fit, which worries me.

"Doctor, I don't like this," I say nervously.

I am ignored. Again.

"Gwenyth it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Dig deep. Let them through. I have faith in you Gwenyth."

He's known her a bloody hour!

Whatever. Miss Muffit apparently digs deep enough because a moment later three 'spirits' flash up behind her, shining like creepy angels.

"Great scot!" Sideburns mumbles, looking like he might fall out of his chair.

I glance over at Dickens and almost laugh at the look of stunned confusion on his face.

" _Pity us_ ," the creepy ghosts 'say', " _Pity the Gelth_."

I pity no one. Not even Casper's mates.

"There is so little time. Help us!"

For the last time NO!

I got a bad feeling about all this.

The Doctor is clearly not picking up on those feels because he says,

"What do you want us to do?"

" _The rift. Take the girl to the rift and make the bridge_."

I think we should ask for some references first.

"What for?"

" _We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction_."

Oh drama rama to the max.

"Why what happened?" The Doctor asks.

" _Once we have physical form, like you. But then the war came_."

"War? What war?" Dickens chimes in.

"The time war. The whole universe convulsed. The time war raged. Invisible to smaller species, but devastating to higher forms."

Who exactly are the 'smaller species' and the 'higher forms' in this context? I think my humanity is offended.

I look over at the Doctor, his expression set in anger and pain and guilt. No one else would see it, but I do. I see the guilt that plagues this impossible man, and I feel a kinship with him that makes no bloody sense at all. We are nothing alike. But it's there all the same. That connection.

Oh, but the ghosty flip flop aren't done waxing their tale of woe. Blah.

" _Our bodies wasted away into nothing. We are trapped like this."_

The Doctor says thoughtfully,

"So that's why you need the dead bodies."

_"We want to stand tall. To feel the sunlight. To live again."_

Yeah and I want a pony, but we can't all have what we want.

" _We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. Give them to us."_

"No." The word springs out of my mouth instinctively.

What I mean to say is no effing way!

The Doctor frowns at me,

"Why not?"

I narrow my eyes at him,

"If you need to ask that question then you are not level headed enough to make the decision either way."

Deal with that logic bomb space boy.

"It could save their lives," The Doctor argues, and he turns away from me.

Oh sure, just ignore the silly human girl like always.

" _Open the rift_."

Nah.

 _"Let the Gelth through_."

Nope.

" _We're dying_."

Yeah well.

" _Help us_."

Not likely gas smurfs!

Suddenly the ghosty whatsits disappear and Miss Muffit slumps forward. I jump up to see if she's alright.

I trying to raise her head, but nope, she's out cold. Fantastic.

...

Of course, it just had to be the fucking morgue didn't it.

"Huh, talk about bleak house," The Doctor says as we all pile into the morgue.

I poke him in the chest,

"Are you trying to be funny? You are not funny. I am the funny one in this duo, so leave the humour to the professionals, ok."

Despite my very logical and morally sound protests, we're apparently willing to sacrifice Miss Muffit to save the gas smurfs. Well whatever then. Apparently I'm being the difficult one.

"Did it just get colder in here?" Dickens says with a dramatic shiver.

A moment later the gas smurfs attack, and everyone apart from me appears delighted.

" _You came to help! Oh praise the Doctor! Praise him!"_

Give the Doctor a good thwack over the head more like.

I point my fire poker at the head gas smurf and say,

"You better not hurt her," I nod towards Miss Muffit, "Or we'll be having words with your supervisor."

The Doctor gives me a look,

"Who's their supervisor supposed to be?"

I wave him off,

"I...um...Grandpa smurf?...I dunno...shut up."

" _Hurry, please! So little time! Pity the Gelth_!"

Yet again I am ignored by an alien.

The Doctor steps forward and says,

"I'll take somewhere else after the transfer. A place where you can build proper bodies. This is not a permanent solution, alright?"

"My Angels, I can help them live." Miss Muffit says.

"Okay, where's the weak point?" The Doctor asks.

" _Here, beneath the arch_ ," Boss man gas smurf tells us.

I'm getting a really bad feeling about all this.

Miss Mutffit moves to stand beneath arch.

"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!"

"Yes!" Miss Miffit gasps, "I can see you! Come!"

No, really, don't.

" _Bridge has been established_."

Oh Goodie.

Miss Muffit opens her mouth and creatures of shining light burst out of it.

Everything goes to shit after that.

I'll say it now, I totally called it.

The gas smurfs get all high and mighty and show their meany bo beany sides. There fucking loads of them and they plan to take over the earth.

Five minutes later, sideburns is dead and turned smurf, Dickens has buggered off to God only know where, and I'm trapped behind a cell door with the Doctor with a some very pissed of looking blue zombies trying to get at me.

I turn to the Doctor,

"So. How are you?"

The Doctor looks down at me and says,

"I'm alright. You?"

I shrug,

"Smashing."

I step forward, and for the hell of it, I slap at one of the grabby blue hands of the gas smurfs with my fire poker. It pleases me for some reason. I think impending death makes me a bit on the sociopathic side.

I smirk at the Doctor,

"I blame you for this!"

The Doctor snorts dismissively,

"You blame me for everything."

"That's because you always start it!" I tell him.

There's a tense moment and then the Doctor meets my eyes,

"I'm so sorry for this. I truly am."

I nudge him with my elbow,

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

The Doctor watches me for a long while, and I can't find it in myself to look away. I see so much truth in his eyes, even hidden amongst all the lies. Half the time I don't know if he's lying to me, himself, or the universe in general. He has such lonely eyes.

"You're very strange," he says to me finally.

I arch an eyebrow at him,

"You're very ridiculous." I counter.

The Doctor smiles slowly, sadly,

"I'm so glad I met you." He takes my hand and we lock our fingers together.

I lean in a little closer to him and admit,

"I'm really glad I met you too."

The Doctor and I stare at each other like idiots.

Just when we're having our movie magic moment, Dickens comes running in and completely ruins it by saving us.

He starts shouting about the gas and blah blah blah. Anyway, it leads to the Doctor ripping a pipe away from the wall and all the gas smurfs being sucked out of the human bodies. So yay.

The Doctor and I come bursting out of the cell.

"Gwenyth, stop, they lied to us! Send them back!"

Miss Muffit blinks rapidly at the Doctor,

"Liars? What's happening?"

The Doctor moves forward, a determined look in his face.

"Send them back, Gwenyth. If your mother and father could look down and see this then they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength, now send them back!"

"I can't. They're too strong." Miss Muffit rasps.

"Yes you can. You can, for the future of the human race. Send them back through the rift." The Doctor says.

"I can't send them back," Miss Muffit gets out between gritted teeth, "But I can hold them. Hold them in this place. Hold them here." She takes a matchbox out of her pocket, "Get out."

That's when time seems to stop all around me. I'm standing here, choking on gas in a morgue in 1860, watching a girl about my age willing to die to save us all from her Angels. It doesn't feel real. It feels wrong.

I shake my head, unable to even contemplate such a horrid thing happening right there. Right in front of me.

"Doctor, do something! Do something now!"

It can't happen like this. The world can't be that cruel.

But it can. And I know that.

The Doctor turns to me,

"Get out, Ever, I won't leave whilst she's till in danger."

She's dead. She's dead. I can feel it my bones but I don't know why. It's maddening.

I move forward and touch the Doctor's arm,

"She's dead, Doctor," I whisper. My own voice a choked out rasp.

The Doctor frowns at me in confusion, but he tries to take her pulse. His expression transforms from one of scepticism to one of solemn despair.

"We have to go," I say mutely.

The Doctor nods, but doesn't speak.

I look away from her dead eyes.

We get out of the building with Dickens in tow just in time. The house explodes behind us.

The three of us stand together, watching the flames flicker and dance. That pit of emptiness in my soul gets bigger, and darker and more consuming than ever before.


	4. Aliens of London

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.

"So go on then, how long have I been gone?" I ask the Doctor.

"About twelve hours," The Doctor says. He folds his arms and leans against the TARDIS.

It feels weird as hell to be home. But kind of nice too. After all the craziness. It's also weird to think that only twelve hours have passed officially and yet I've done so much.

I shake my head and look up at the sky. The very normal, 21st century sky.

"Alright, I just wanna stop by and see Rose and Mum. Mum probably won't have noticed I've even gone yet, she's used to me not coming home."

It's sadly true. I was always the wild one, Rose being the more sober of the two of us. In more ways than one.

The Doctor frowns at me and asks,

"What are you gonna tell them?"

I shrug at him,

"I'll make something up. Besides, Rose already knows some of it, she'll help with Mum."

I start backing away towards our flat. Suddenly a thought occurs to me though and turn back to fix the Doctor with a hard stare,

"You better not bugger off without me. I'll be pissed if you do, and remember what I'm like when I'm filled with rage and fury."

The Doctor smirks a little and says,

"Oh, I remember the great ice cream shortage of last night, believe me."

"I know you fear my badassness," I wink at him.

"Yeah, yeah, hurry up, I won't wait here forever." The Doctor warns, but I can tell he's teasing.

"Liar!" I say, but I'm already turning around and running towards my building.

I practically sprint up the stairs, wanting to get the family meeting out of the way fast. I can't wait to be back in the TARDIS and travelling again. I honestly don't know how I ever lived my life just going to work, going out and coming home. Like clockwork. My life has taken on a whirlwind and I'm nowhere near ready to let go of it yet.

"Hey Rose, Mum, you both in?" I call out when I let myself into the flat.

I stride around the corner and come face to face with my Mum, standing there in her pink dressing gown, holding a cup of tea. I marvel at that fact that nothing seems to have changed.

I smile at her and say,

"You alright? Sorry I didn't text, my phone died."

Finally I see something in my Mum's eyes that clues me in. She's staring at me like I'm a ghost.

"Ever!" I hear a shocked voice from behind me. I look over my shoulder to see Rose standing there with her mouth hanging open.

What the hell is going on?

I jump when Mum drops her mug and it smashes on the kitchen floor.

"Mum, what's wrong?" I ask her. She's still staring at me.

"It's you!" Mum exclaims in disbelief.

I frown at her,

"Um...last time I checked, yeah."

But Mum is already moving forward and enveloping me in a tight hug,

"It's really you...oh my _God_!"

And that's when I clock the missing posters on the table with my face on them. Brilliant. I am going to kill the Doctor with his own sonic blue thingy!

Speak of the Devil, the Doctor comes rushing in and says,

"Sorry, it's not twelve hours, it's twelve months."

I pull away from my Mum's embrace and look over at him. I give the Doctor a face full of glaritude and say,

"I will hurt you."

"Not before me you won't," Rose suddenly says. I glance over at her. She has her arms crossed and a look of pure thunder aimed at the Doctor.

Uh oh, this could be potentially problematic.

Oh bloody hell, here we go.

...

"The days and weeks and months your sister and me sat here! I thought you were dead!" Mum practically shrieks at me, "And where were you? Traveling!"

I look down my lap, wincing. Yeah, this is going even worse than I thought it would.

"What does that even mean?" Mum goes on, sounding even more vexed, "Travelling? That's not a real answer!" She nods at the policeman sitting opposite, "Go on you ask her, she won't tell me."

I glance over at Rose, who seems to be studiously averting her gaze from mine every time I try to get her attention. I need to talk to Rose alone, at least then I'll know what she told Mum. Not much of anything it seems like. I can't decide if that's a good thing or not. But then, it's not her fault, I'm the one who buggered off without really thinking about it.

"Look, I got offered an opportunity I couldn't miss out on-" I try to explain, but Mum cuts me off.

"An opportunity? What kind of opportunity? You're not making any sense!" She points at me angrily, "And why didn't you phone all this time?"

"I meant to," I say with a heavy sigh, "I just...lost track of time." Literally.

"For a year?" Mum yells, "You couldn't call me once for a whole bloody year? I don't believe you!"

"Mum...it's was complicated, alright, I-"

"Complicated?! Why won't you just tell me where you've been?" Mum crosses her arms and stares at me. I feel five years old again. I'm used to her yelling at me and having a go, because I was usually the one getting into trouble all the time, but this is different. I've genuinely upset her and I feel like shit for that.

The Doctor finally decides to be somewhat useful to me and steps forward, saying,

"It was actually my fault really. I sort of...employed Ever as my companion."

Ohhh, that's gonna go down well. I see the policeman's eyes brighten at that prospect and I know exactly what he's thinking now.

"When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?" he asks.

"No!" The Doctor says immediately.

My answer is more on the sarcastic side,

"Yeah, of course, he's my suger daddy and I'm his Julia Roberts."

"That's not helping," The Doctor mutters to me.

"Hush your face," I mutter right back at him.

"It's really not like that," The Doctor says to the policeman.

That's when Mum really loses her rag. She takes an aggressive step toward the Doctor,

"Then what is it like? Because you, you waltz in here all charm and smiles, and the next thing I know she's," I get pointed at, "vanished off the face of the earth."

Again, quite literally.

Mum gets a bit personal next,

"How old are you then?" she asks the Doctor, "forty? Forty-five? What you find her on the internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a Doctor?"

In what world would him pretending to be a Doctor entice me into being kidnapped anyway? I'm more likely to get tricked using candy, the old fashioned way.

"I am a Doctor!" The Doctor argues weakly in the face of my Mum's rage.

It's almost amusing.

Then the best thing ever happens,

"Prove it, stitch this mate!" Mum gives the Doctor a good smack to the face.

I'd feel bad if I didn't want to do the exact same thing to him most of the time.

I manage to drag Mum away from the Doctor long enough to calm her down. Or semi calm her down. She starts crying, which really makes me feel like a crappy daughter.

Rose comes into the kitchen behind us. I look at her over Mum's shoulder as she pulls me into a hug.

"I was so afraid," Mum says into my ear, "I thought...God, just one phone call...to know you were alive!"

"I know Mum, I'm so sorry...I screwed up...again..." I hug her back fiercely and mouth at Rose 'we need to talk'. Rose just gives me a tired shrug and walks away.

Great.

Mum leans back and cups my face in her hands,

"The thing that scares me most is that you can't even tell me where you went. Please, sweet heart, just tell me, where were you?"

I shake my head,

"I can't, Mum, you have to trust me."

I can see in her eyes that she might never trust me again.

...

"I really fucked up this time." I say to the Doctor. We're on the roof of my building, finally away from my Mum's constant questions and Rose's irritating evasiveness.

"That it then? Are you going to stay here now?" The Doctor asks. He is rubbish at sympathy. I'll have to remember that.

I whack his shoulder and say,

"You wish. But I can't do that to her again."

"Well she's not coming with us," The Doctor says.

I scoff and we both start laughing. I picture my Mum in the TARDIS and I have to stop myself from cringing hard enough to develop a headache.

"I love that she wholloped you one," I say through my own snickering.

The Doctor shakes his head,

"Nine hundred years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother."

I find that really hard to believe.

"You deserved it." I say.

"It hurt!" The Doctor protests.

"Oh don't be a big baby." I wave a dismissive hand, "And when you say nine hundred years..."

"That's my age," The Doctor says without any inflection.

"Oh my God you're like a bazillion years old!" I poke his arm.

The Doctor slaps my hand away,

"Oi, I have feelings."

"Are you sure? Do aliens even feel things the same way humans do?" I ask, more to wind him up really.

The Doctor glares at me,

"We aren't all lumped in together you know. It's not alien, and then the human race. You lot are aliens too."

I scoff and make a wavy gesture,

"Yeah, yeah, you keep telling yourself that."

The Doctor opens his mouth to respond, but is swiftly cut off by a spaceship flying over our heads. We both gape, mouths hanging open almost comically as the spaceship flies over London and then lands anti-climatically in the river.

Nice.

I point at the Doctor,

"Did you do this?"

The Doctor gives me a harsh look and says,

"How could I possibly have done that? I'm standing right here."

"That logic only works when you don't have a time machine," I snap back.

The Doctor just huffs something rude at me, as always when I win the argument, and then we're running off after the bloody Enterprise.

...

"Ever!" Rose comes crashing into the TARDIS looking like she's being chased by Hades himself.

I turn to her with a grin, unable to help myself and I say,

"Ok, so we lied. We went to have a look, but we had to! The bloody aliens are creating fake aliens and staging fake alien spaceship landings! It's so amazing!" I rise up and down on my toes, pure excitement bubbling up inside me.

The Doctor and I crashed downing street to get a look at the supposed alien. It was a engineered pig, brilliant. The engineered pig got shot, not so brilliant. But all in all it was pretty epic for a fly by visit.

Rose pulls a face and says,

"Mum's here."

Just like that all the wind gets knocked out of my sails.

"Uh oh."

I turn around to see my Mum, and Mickey for God's sake, wandering into the TARDIS. The Doctor gives them one look and groans,

"Great, just what I need." He points dramatically at me, "Don't you dare make this place domestic."

I slap his finger hard and say,

"Point at me like that again and I'll hit you so hard that what my Mum did will seem like a love tap."

We face off for about a mili-second and then the Doctor rolls his eyes and turns back to one of his TARDIS computer screens.

He fears me. As he should.

"You ruined my life Doctor," Mickey accuses. "They thought she was dead, I was a murder suspect because of you."

I look over at Rose in confusion, she just shrugs and pulls an exasperated face at Mickey.

The Doctor just sighs and says to me,

"See? Domestic!"

"I bet you don't even remember my name," Mickey bumbles on. Someone throw a sock at him!

"Ricky," The Doctor guesses. I know he knows perfectly well what Mickey's name is. So the only reason he's pretending not to is to be irritating. He does that a lot. I don't know what he gets out of annoying people on purpose, but I'm starting to enjoy it, and that cannot be good.

"It's Mickey." Mickey says with a glare.

"No, it's Ricky," The Doctor replies, turning fully to face him.

"I think I know my own name," Mickey says defensively.

I mentally facepalm, oh here we go.

"You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?" The Doctor says mockingly.

I hit his shoulder,

"Leave the earth boy alone, Doctor."

"Is he always like this?" Rose asks me, gesturing at the Doctor.

I answer instantly,

"Yes. I mostly just drown him out by pretending he's secretly a magic genie in disguise who talks nothing but rubbish."

The Doctor looks at me in disbelief,

"I am not a genie."

I cup my ear as if pretending to listen and then look at him in wonder,

"What was that genie? You like hubba bubba, really? Me too!"

The Doctor just scowls,

"You know if you weren't young, blond and cute, you'd be very unlikeable."

I quirk an eyebrow at him,

"All I got from that nonsense was that you think I'm cute. I didn't think you could think those things."

"Why not?" The Doctor appears confused, which is my favourite way for him to look by the way.

I shrug,

"I thought you were gay."

The Doctor's eyes widen,

"What? Why?!"

"I thought all aliens were gay." I shrug again.

Obviously I've never thought that, but it's fun to watch the Doctor's mind explode with indignation on behalf of all the straight aliens out there. I wonder if sexuality even exists on some planets. I mean, just because humans feel the need to label everything about themselves doesn't mean all aliens do. I make a mental note to ask the Doctor that question when he's feeling less flustered and ridiculous.

"You're impossible." The Doctor says to me, with a certain amount of finality in his voice.

I realise Rose and Mickey are just staring at us like we're panda's in a zoo. Not particularly intelligent pandas either. I like pandas. Would there be a panda planet somewhere out there, with evolved pandas who can speak and stuff?

"Are there alien pandas?" I ask the Doctor.

The Doctor narrows his eyes at me,

"I don't even want to try and follow the train of thought that brought you to that question."

I huff at him,

"Fine, be that way. Killjoy."

It's then that I notice that Mum has run off outside. She's probably freaking out. Damn it!

Rose appears to clock our Mum's departure a moment after I do, and we both run after her. I call back to Mickey,

"If you want to hit him, then aim for the nose, that's where I think his magic comes from."

...

"This friend of yours...he's an expert, is that right? He knows about...aliens" Harriet asks me.

Bloody hell, all we did was go outside and now we've been accosted. Well, the Doctor said escorted, but still. We've been dragged back to downing street, legally this time. The Doctor is locked in a room with alien experts, a funny bit of irony that does no escape me, and I'm being questioned by a local MP in a skirt named Harriet Jones.

Fantastic!

"The Doctor knows a lot of things," I say, "most of it is silly space talk, but, yeah he knows about aliens too. Pretty interesting if you're into that sort of thing."

I must have said something wrong, because Harriet quite suddenly starts blubbing. Maybe she's part of the Doctor's fan club and I've just insulted her leader of ridiculousness.

I attempt to comfort her, but I'll be honest right now, I'm not very good at it. I end up patting her head and asking if she wants some lemonade. Harriet seems like she could use some lemonade. I'd quite like some lemonade. It's possible that I might be projecting.

Still, it's the thought that counts.

Eventually though Harriet stops spitting tears at me, and grabs hold of my jacket sleeve. She drags me upstairs and I go without protest because I'm kind of hoping she'll know where the biscuits are up in this place. She looks like the type who would know that kind of thing.

But it turns out she knows a hell of a lot more than just where the biscuits are. I'd like to say I was shocked when Harriet showed me the used skin suit, but that would be a lie. I think life with the Doctor has already jaded me. Ah, well, at least I know who to bill for my future therapy sessions.

"They turn the body into a suit, a disguise for the thing inside!" Harriet babbles, pressing her fingers to her face. She looks upset again. I really hope this crying thing isn't a theme with her.

I get a bit more adventurous this time and I touch her arm,

"Hey, don't panic. It's definitely alien, you're right."

One gold star to you. And one to me for finding you. I feel like I should be earning companion badges or something. I may propose the idea to the Doctor later.

I start riffling around in the conference room, looking for any clues of alien riff raff.

"What are you doing?" Harriet asks me.

I wave around the room,

"Those aliens have some serious tech lying around somewhere, if we could find it...the Doctor would know how to stop them from...whatever they're planning to do."

I don't have any idea what their plans actually are, but based on principle alone it's probably nothing good.

My thoughts are confirmed when I open a cupboard and the prime minister falls out. Dead. Very dead.

So not cool.

Harriet rushes over to me and she tries to feel for a pulse. She will not find one.

Suddenly boy wonder comes waffling in, the shithead who wouldn't let me into the super secret alien meeting.

"Harriet, what are you doing now? I told you to-" he halts suddenly when he see's the dead man. He looks up at us, "That's...that's the prime minister."

Well yes, thank you captain waffle.

Our 'dun dun dun' moment is ruined when a short and stout blond woman enters the room. She looks delighted to see us. That worries me. The woman looks like the witch from Hanzel and Gretal.

"This doesn't make sense," captain waffle says incredulously, he turns to the blond witch, "The prime minister left downing street, he was driven away!"

Witchy McGee starts ambling towards us and I tense up a little. Harriet notices right away and follows suit.

"And who told you that? **Me**!" Witchy McGee says. She smiles and I swallow the urge to sing. I don't know why, I was raised by Disney, all intense moments make me want to sing.

Then shit gets weird.

Witchy McGee brushes her fringe out of the way and starts to unzip her forehead. Well, why the hell not, we've all been there.

A bright blue light practically blinds me as Witchy McGee reveals the green E.T. within the skin suit.

This is getting exciting...and sort of deadly.

But still exciting!

Not so much when Witchy McGee uses one massive clawed hand to pick up captain waffle and bash him against the wall.

And just because I like to live my life on the edge I pick up a metal whatsit from a shelf and throw it at Witchy McGee. I shout,

"BAD WITCH!"


	5. World War Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.

"Run!" I shout at Harriet when Witchy McGee starts spazzing out. Her body looks like it's being electrocuted. Perfect timing. I bet it's the Doctor's fault, he's always doing something ridiculous.

Harriet and I bolt it through the corridors, trying to put as much distance between us and E.T's grandmother as we can.

Suddenly Harriet grabs hold of my arm and yanks me to a stop, she says frantically,

"No, stop! They're still in there, the emergency protocols, we need them."

Is she mental?

"Are you mental? No, we gotta bounce! This is no time for bloody protocols-" I try to protest but Harriet starts to amble off back to the office. I huff in frustration and follow after her.

But as soon as get around the corner again we see that Witchy McGee is finally free of her spaz session. Witchy comes at us with a gurgly growl and I scream. Because I feel like it, ok.

We run away flailing our arms around just like in those monster movies I love to hate. Wichy McGee screeches at us quite rudely, I might add. God, are all aliens this impolite. First Cassandra the skin sample insulted my face, then the ghost smurfs tried to invade my personal space, and now a bloody great frog is trying to rip me apart. Not to mention all the times the Doctor has been irritating and a major meanie bo beany to me.

Harriet and I dodge around corners and slam doors in our wake to slow Witchy McGee down, but she's having none of it. The angry frog is officially pissed right off. She smashes through the door and keeps on coming after us.

I slip around one corner only to see the bloody Doctor looking pleased with himself and faffing around in an elvelator. I curse madly at him, but don't stop running away from the doom frog. Over my shoulder I shout at the Doctor,

"If I get out of this alive then I'm gonna kick your arse, Doctor, you mad git!"

I hope he gets shot and then eaten by an alien frog.

After evading Witchy McGee once again, I yank Harriet into a room and kick the door closed. I hiss-whisper at her,

"Hide! And if that doesn't work, play dead! Find your inner possum! Become one with the wallpaper!"

"Find your inner what?" Harriet asks, sounding like a confused Grandma who got lost at the zoo.

I flap my hands around a bit to convey the seriousness of the situation,

"I don't ruddy know! Just hide!"

We both scatter, finding ourselves equally shitty hiding places. Ah, well, it'll have to do.

A few moments of tense silence later, the door to the room opens and Witchy McGee comes in. I hear her rasp,

"Ohhh, such fun! Little human children, where are you?"

Children? I happen to be nineteen years old you bitch! I can buy alcohol, join the military and get married! All in the same bloody afternoon if I wanted to thank you very much.

Then I remember the Doctor's age. Hm. Maybe I am just a baby in space-culture.

"Sweet little humankins, come to me." Witchy McGee purrs all froggy and shit.

Things get even worse when more giant frogs enter the room. One of them asks Witchy McGee,

"Happy hunting?"

"Oh, yes. It's wonderful." Witchy McGee says, "The more you prolong it, the more they stink!"

"Sweat and fear," froggy number one says, "I can smell an old girl. Stale perfume and brittle bones."

Ok, now that's just rude and uncalled for.

"And a ripe youngster, all hormones and adrenalin." Witchy McGee chimes in, the bitch. I can hear her getting closer to me and my breathe hitches almost painfully. "Fresh enough to bend before she snaps!" Witchy McGee pulls the curtain away and my heart just about explodes with fear and anger.

I open my mouth and instead of screaming like I know I'm supposed to, I say,

"Go away. I'm busy. Can't you see I'm in the middle of a very intense game of hide and seek here, and you're _ruining_ it!"

Look, when I'm nervous I say a lot of insane things, just go with it ok.

Then Harriet goes and out-weirds me by abandoning her hiding place and shouting,

"NO! Take me first, take me!"

Way to piss on my thunder there, Harriet. I mean it's noble and all, but still...I totally had everything under control. I am the space-frog whisperer. Alright, I'm not, but I could have given it a go. There's no need to shout or sacrifice your life.

Thankfully the Doctor foils Harriet's attempt to die by bursting in through the door with fucking fire extinguisher. He blows foamy stuff at the space frogs.

"Right you two, with me!" he calls.

Oh, so now he wants to help.

I grab a letter opener from the side table and jab it into Witchy McGee's thigh. She screams in frog pain and I dash around her to make my great escape.

Harriet and I stop behind the Doctor. I thwack his arm and say,

"Seriously, next time I'm about to be killed, could you please try not to leave it to the last possible moment to save me."

The Doctor just grins and me and replies,

"Hello to you too."

I roll my eyes and don't comment.

The Doctor looks over at Harriet and asks,

"Who the hell are you?"

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North." Harriet answers distractedly.

"Nice to meet you," The Doctor says.

"Likewise." Harriet replies.

The Doctor fires another load of white foam at the space frog and then we all run from the room.

Then we're running. Again.

"We need to get to the cabinet room." The Doctor announces.

"The emergency protocols are in there." Harriet says, "They give instructions for aliens."

"Harriet Jones, I like you," The Doctor calls over his shoulder as he takes the lead.

"I think I like you too," Harriet says.

"Would you two stop flirting! We have shit to survive here!" I shout at them as we run like mad through the corridors.

We make it to the room, but the space frogs are still chasing after us.

The Doctor picks up a bottle of brandy and brandishes it at the space frogs. He points his sonic blue thingy at it and says,

"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Woof! We all go up. So back off!"

Surprisingly the space frogs swallow that bullshit and stop just outside the door.

"Right then," The Doctor continues, "question time. Who exactly are the slitheen?"

The what the fuck?

"They're aliens." Harriet says.

"Yes, I got that, thanks."

"Who are you if not human?" Mr. Froggy asks.

"Who's not human?" Harriet's eyes widen in surprise.

I poke the Doctor and say,

"He's a space boy."

"He's not human?" Harriet asks, sounding aghast at the idea.

"Could I have a bit of hush?" The Doctor says.

"He's also a big meanie bo beany, so get used to that as well." I say to Harriet.

"Not now Ever!" The Doctor snaps at me.

I glare at him

"I wasn't talking to you! I was talking **_about_** you, there's a big difference."

The Doctor grumbles at me, but turns back to the space frogs anyway,

"So, what's the plan?" he asks them.

"But he's got a northern accent," Harriet says to me.

I shrug,

"Yeah, I know, doesn't it sound ridiculous."

"I said hush!" The Doctor snips at us.

I mentally flick him in the eye.

"Right, come on, you've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of Government. What for? Invasion?" The Doctor demands impatiently.

He's grumpy today.

"Why would we invade this godforsaken rock?" Uppity frog says snidely.

We have nice parks.

"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?"

"The Slitheen race? Slitheen is not our species, it is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasamear-day Slitheen at your service."

Hm, and I thought my name was weird.

"So you're a family?" The Doctor says.

"A family business." Froggy number two says.

"Then you're out to make a profit. How can you do that on a godforsaken rock?" The Doctor asks.

"Uhhh...your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?" Froggy asks sceptically.

Damn it.

"Oh, is that what I said."

"You're making it up," Froggy guesses.

"Oh, well, nice try." The Doctor says, he passes the bottle over to Harriet, "Harriet, have a drink, I think you're gonna need it."

I snatch the bottle,

"Not as much as I bloody will by the end of all this crap."

"Now we can end this hunt, with a slaughter," Froggy hisses at us.

"Doctor close the bloody door!" I shout angrily.

The Doctor just grins at the Slitheen annoyingly and goes on to say some bullshit about downing street and a chicken or whatever. Anyway, it ends in him clicking a button on the wall and locking us inside this room.

"Three inches of steel lining every single wall," The Doctor says, sounding absurdly pleased about it for some reason.

I narrow my eyes at him and say,

"You better tell me you have a teleportation device somewhere inside that stupid mid-life crisis leather jacket of yours."

The Doctor makes a face,

"Ah...not quite."

Fantastic.

...

"What was his name?" The Doctor asks as he drags that young dead assistant over to the cupboard.

"Who?" Harriet says.

"This one, what's his name?" The Doctor gestures at the body as he lays him down.

"I don't know. I spoke to him. I brought him a cup of coffee. I never asked his name."

I watch the Doctor curiously as he looks down at a man he never knew and says softly,

"I'm sorry."

A deep sadness opens up inside my chest. Only to be replaced by that same gaping emptiness only moments later.

"Why didn't they use the prime minister as a disguise after they killed him? Is he just not fat enough?" I ask the Doctor as he goes around with his blue sonic thingy checking the windows.

The Doctor looks at me in surprise,

"Actually, that's exactly right. He's too slim, and the Slitheen are big beasts, they need to fit inside big humans."

"Makes sense I suppose...but still, they're fucking massive." I say thoughtfully.

"That's the collar around their necks. It's a compression field, it literally shrinks them down a bit." The Doctor says.

I consider this and then say,

"Well, looks like the BBC was right, fat people will be the end of us all."

"Excuse me, people are dead, this is not the time for jokes," Harriet gives me a disapproving look.

I wave a hand at her dismissively,

"Nah, don't worry about it. The Doctor brings chaos in his wake at all times, so I'm pretty used to all this mental stuff by now."

"Well that's a strange friendship," Harriet mutters, her expression one of confusion. Can't really blame her, it does sound a bit ludicrous.

"Harriet Jones," The Doctor says suddenly. He walks around the large coference table, "Harriet Jones. Are you famous or something? I swear I've heard that name."

Harriet scoffs,

"Hardly. Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and fat lot of use I'm being now. The protocols are redundant."

I move in closer to look over Harriet's shoulder.

"Do they have launch codes for bombs and things? Are we meant to blow them sky high? You know, take them on Die Hard style?"

Harriet raises an eyebrow at me,

"You're a very strange person."

I wink at her and say,

"I know." I gesture at the Doctor, "That's secretly why he likes me."

"Well there's nothing about bombs in here," Harriet says after a short pause. "Nuclear strikes do need a passcode, yes, but it's kept secret by the united nations."

I sigh dramatically and run a hand through my hair. The Doctor turns to us again, a speculative look on his face.

"So, what do the giant space frogs even want?"

"Well, they're just one family, so it's not an invasion. They don't Slitheen world. They're out to make money. That means they want to use something, something here on earth, some kind of asset."

Harriet throws out ideas,

"Like what? Oil? Gold? Water?"

"Chickens?" I guess, "Hippos? Chocolate? Co co puffs? Trees? Ponds? Ha, it's ponds isn't it?"

The Doctor smiles at Harriet and says,

"You're very good at this." Then his gaze turns to me and he says, "You, are not. I might be needing a new companion."

I make a noise like a scoff and say,

"You wish. Good luck finding someone else who will put up with you and your face."

The Doctor opens his mouth to say something. Probably something annoying. But my phone beeps. I take the phone out of my pocket.

"But I thought we were sealed off." Harriet says, her brow furrowing.

I say,

"The Doctor stole my phone and broke it. Now it works everywhere."

"Then we can phone for help, you must have contacts!" Harriet says far too excitedly to the Doctor.

"Dead downstairs, yeah." The Doctor says darkly.

I study my phone for a moment and then let out a sigh,

"It's Rose and Mickey."

The Doctor makes a face and says,

"Oh tell them to sod off, we're busy here."

I give him a hard stare and flash the phone at him,

"Yeah, you might want to rethink that."

Mickey and Rose sent me a picture of a giant space frog.

Oh blimey, here we go again.

...

"Rose get out of there! Get out now!" I shout at her through the phone.

One of the pissy space frogs is attacking Rose, my Mum and Mickey. Mickey has just broken into the top secret earth files for the Doctor. There's a signal coming from the space frog's ship.

"We can't, it's by the front door!" Rose shouts back.

"Oh God, it's unmasking, it's gonna kill us!" Mickey says, sounding panicked.

A thick knot hangs heavy in my stomach.

"Doctor, there must be a way to stop them!" Harriet says frantically.

I hold onto the back of a chair so tight that my hands start to go numb. Even the thought of what those arsehole aliens could do to my family...

"Doctor..." I say, desperation clinging to my tone.

The Doctor looks up at me, panic in his eyes. That does not bode well.

"I'll take it on, you two just run. Don't look back." I hear Mickey say to my Mum and Rose.

"Doctor, this is one of those times when your genius brain should actually come in useful!" I can't stop the fear in my heart from taking over. I can handle being afraid for my own life, but not for someone I love.

Something clicks inside the Doctor's eyes and I feel relief pool in my gut. As long as that light stays on inside the Doctor's eyes, then there's always hope.

"Right," he says, "If we're going figure out their weakness then we need to know where they're from. Judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to 5,000 planets within travelling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!"

"They look like frogs!" I say. They properly do though. Frogs with claws.

"Narrows it down."

"Can sniff out humans like bloodhounds!" Creepy.

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell how old we are." Creepy again.

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology." Harriet offers. Ha, companion badge abound!

"Narrows it down."

"Their space hopper has a slipstream engine." Whatever the flying fuck donut that means.

"Narrow it down."

"They hunt like it's a bloody hobby." The weirdoes.

"Narrows it down."

"If you'll notice, pardon the word, when they fart, it doesn't just smell...like a fart, pardon the word, it smells more like...um."

"Morning breathe!" I add.

"Yes!" Harriet points at me.

That light in the Doctor's eyes suddenly turns into an inferno of knowledge and he says,

"That's it! Calcium decay! Now that narrows it down."

"Almost got it!" I shout to Rose.

"Too late!" Rose calls back. I hear the crashing of a door.

The Doctor starts pacing and talking.

"Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium. What else? What else? Hyphenated surname! Yes! That narrows it down to one planet. Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

What the fuck kind of word is that?

"Oh, great, we can write them a complaint letter!" Mickey calls through the phone.

"This is no time for your sass Mick!" I yell.

"Don't start on me Ev's, I'm the one with the baseball bat!" Mickey says.

"Get into the kitchen!" The Doctor tells them.

There's a lot of bashing and crashing on the other end of the line.

"Calcium weakened by the compression field. Acetic acid! Vinegar!" The Doctor starts rambling on, "Mickey, have you got any vinegar!"

"How should I know?" Mickey says.

"It's your kitchen." The Doctor replies dryly.

I throw my hands up,

"Oh for the love of ice cream...Rose, it's on the middle shelf in the top cupboard."

"I know, already on it!" Rose calls back.

"Gherkins! Pickled onions! Pickled eggs!" Mum say.

The Doctor gives me a look and says,

"You kissed that man?"

I narrow my eyes at him,

"Not anymore."

"Used to." The Doctor mutters.

"Jealous." I accuse.

"I am not!" The Doctor says indignantly.

"Sounds jealous?" I say looking at Harriet.

Harriet nods,

"A bit jealous, yeah."

The Doctor makes a noise of exasperation.

A few moments later there's a loud exploding sound over the phone.

"Rose? Mum? Mick?" I call to them.

"We're fine!" Rose replies.

Well thank fuck for that then.

...

"There has to be something we can do." I say, more to myself than to anyone else.

The space frogs have just revealed their plan to destroy the earth and then sell it as fuel. The pricks. Let it be known that I am not pleased about this. Not even a little bit.

"There's loads of emergency numbers, they're all on voicemail." Mickey says, back on his computer now.

"We need to get out of this bloody room. We need to get out of here now." I say, running a hand through my hair in frustration.

"There's a way out," The Doctor says suddenly.

I turn to him in surprise,

"Been holding out on us have you space boy?"

"There's always been a way out," the Doctor says, his expression hard as stone.

"Then why haven't we used it?" I ask in confusion.

The Doctor leans over a chair and avoids my gaze,

"Because I can't guarantee your safety."

"Don't you dare!" Mum demands through the phone, "Whatever it is, don't you dare,"

"That's the thing. If I don't dare then everybody dies." The Doctor says darkly.

A shiver courses up my spine at the cold reality of it all.

I move over to him and place my hand on his arm. The Doctor looks at me and I say,

"If it'll save the earth then do it."

The Doctor studies my expression for a few seconds and try to make myself look as calm and brave as possible if that's what he needs to see.

"You don't even know what it is," the Doctor says, "You'd just let me."

Our eyes lock for a very tense moment.

"Yes." I say simply. My trust in the Doctor is unconditional and absolute. I think has been from the moment he took my hand that first time.

"Please Doctor, please no. She's my daughter. She's just a kid." Mum pleads.

"You have two. We even look the same." I say absently.

"That not funny, Ever." Rose says, with obvious strain in her voice.

I shrug,

"It's true though." I squeeze the Doctor's arm, "Do it, Doctor. Save the bloody earth."

"I know she's your daughter, Jackie," The Doctor says, although his eyes never leave mine. "You think I don't? This is my life, Jackie, it's not fun or smart, it's just me standing up and making a decision because no one else will."

"Then what the hell are you waiting for?" I find myself asking.

The Doctor appears to look at me even more intensely. I see that same loneliness that's always there, just beneath the surface.

"I could save the world, but lose you."

The words hit me like a star smashing into comet. It creates an explosion inside of me that is almost too painful to bear.

"Except it's not your decision, Doctor," Harriet ways in suddenly, "It's mine."

"Who the hell are you?" Mum snaps.

"Harriet Jones. MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people, for the people." Harriet says with a certain amount of authority that I never would have expected from her. She gives the Doctor a piercing look, "On behalf of the people I command you, Doctor, do it."

The turns from Harriet back to me. A grin spreads across his face. I wink at him. Oh, this is going to be so much trouble.

"So how do we blow this popsicle stand?" I ask, quirking an eyebrow at him.

The Doctor shakes his head and grabs the protocols.

"We don't. We stay right here." The Doctor tells Mickey, "Use the buffalo password, it overrides everything."

"Here it is," Mickey says, "HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class Submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."

"Right, we need to Select a missile." The Doctor says.

"We can't go nuclear, we don't have the pass codes," Mickey replies worriedly.

"We don't need it. All we need is an ordinary missile. What's the first category?"

"Sub harpoon, UGM-84A." Mickey says.

"That's the one. Select."

Jesus, we're shopping for bombs now.

"You ready for this?" The Doctor asks.

There's a pause from the other end of the phone and then...

"Yeah."

The Doctor rolls his shoulders back and says,

"Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands. Fire."

"You got this Mick," I say encouragingly.

Another moment and then...

"Done."

Bloody hell.

"How solid are these?" Harreit asks, pointing at the metal covering the windows.

"Not solid enough." The Doctor says.

"Pessimist," I roll my eyes at him. "Right then, since you've apparently accepted our deaths as inveitable, it looks like I'll have to step up and save us again." I rush over to the cupboard, open it, and then turn back to them, "We're gonna make this bomb our bitch by using this cupboard. Just like they say about earthquakes. Well, come on!"

Harriet rushes over to me. We starts unloading things out of the cupboard.

A few minutes later Rose's voice comes through the phone,

"It's on radar. Counter defence 556."

"Stop them intercepting it!" The Doctor says.

"I'm doing it now!" Mickey tell him.

"Good boy."

A few seconds later.

"556 neutralised."

"Mick, you are boss today. Like for real." I call out to him as I throw some folders out of the cupboard.

When we all gather into the empty cupboard we slump down on the floor, leaning against the wall.

"Well, nice knowing you both." Harriet says to us.

"Right back at you," I say, and we all clasp each other hands like we're in a ruddy praying circle. We kind of are actually.

Then the explosion hits and everything gets fucked for a bit. It throws us around the cupboard like rag dolls and we all hold on for dear life. Literally.

When it's finally over, and I realise we are not, in fact, dead as a doornail, I let out a loud whoop.

The three of us clamber out of the cupboard and the Doctor pushes open the metal door to the protected room. Everything is in ruins just outside. It looks like a mini bombed city, which is actually is, so fair enough.

"Made it Britain!" Harriet says with a genuine smile on her face.

I fist pump the air,

"Hells yeah! England for the win you froggy space dicks!"

The Doctor laughs at that, and catches my arm when I almost fuck over on the debris.

A police type person comes rushing over to us, asking,

"Oh my God, are you alright?"

Harriet takes the lead on this one,

"Harriet Jones, MP, Flydale North. I want you to contact the UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors that the crisis is over. They can stand down." She shoo's him away, "Go on, tell them the news."

Police person shuffles off to do as he's told.

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out," Harriet says to us, "Oh lord, we haven't even got a prime minister."

"Well maybe you should have a go at it," The Doctor suggests with a wan smile.

"Me! Oh, I'm only a backbencher." Harriet waves him off.

I scoff and give her a grin,

"I'd vote Harriet Jones one hundred percent."

"Now don't be silly," Harriet says good naturedly, she looks away then and adds, "Ah, I better go and see if I can help." Harriet leaves us, calling out to the police people and generally sounding like the top dog she is underneath all that cardigan.

The Doctor takes my hand and we follow after her.

"I thought I knew her name," The Doctor says to me.

I raise an eyebrow at him,

"What do you mean?"

"Harriet Jones. Future prime minister." The Doctor says almost proudly, "Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britains golden age."

I smile to myself. Sometimes being human is epic.

...

"I'll get a proper job. I'll pass my tests. And if Jim comes around again, I'll say no, I really will." Mum holds onto my arm as we walk towards the TARDIS.

I have my bag all packed and ready to go this time. It'll be nice to have my own pants.

"I'm not leaving because of you, you numpty," I tell Mum, spinning around to face her properly, "I'm going travelling. I'm doing it for me. Because out there...it's...God Mum...if you could just see how extraordinary the universe is...you'd understand why I have to go."

Maybe. Or could just be me going crazy.

"But it's not safe." Mum says, shaking her head at me, dismay and upset etched into her face.

I look over Mum's shoulder at Mickey and Rose, both of them are watching me. Mickey with a worried frown, and Rose with...yeah, I'm not even sure how to describe the look Rose's face right now.

I take Mum hands and say,

"This is just something I have to do, Mum. But I will come back. I _will_."

I turn around and shove my bag at the Doctor, who takes it with a woof of air at it's weight.

"Got enough stuff?" he asks drolly.

I shove him lightly and say,

"Deal with it, I need all my unicorn socks and shredded concert t-shirts to survive life with you. I also brought Oreos."

"Oi, those are mine," Rose call over.

"Then they can be your goodbye present to me." I call back.

"I feel like I'm adopting a stray kitten," The Doctor mutters.

"Pfft, at least you're not being adopted by a weirdo with a phone box." I say mockingly.

I hug Mickey and then Rose. For a moment Rose and I just look at each other. We aren't close. Never have been really. But she's always been a part of me in a way no one else ever will, or could, be. I'll miss her the most.

"What if you get stranded? What if something happens to the Doctor and you're stuck on some moon somewhere, alone. How long do I wait this time?" Mum starts in, sounding more panicked by the second.

I turn to Mum and grasp her arms, forcing her to really look at me.

"Mum...it's a time machine. We can come back any time. I promise you, it'll be fine. I'll be back before you can even miss me."

Mum yanks me into a tight embrace, and I allow myself to hold onto her. I haven't hugged her like this since I was a child, and that thought makes my eyes prick with heat.

When I finally let, it feels like I'm letting go of so much more than just my Mum. I'm letting go of my old life. Everything that I was has been wiped away, and this new person that I am stands tall and strong. Stronger than I have any right to be.

With one last look back at my family, I follow the Doctor into the TARDIS.


	6. Dalek

"So then, why are we here again?" I ask, making a face at the museum of alien wubbish that surrounds us.

Seriously, like, for real right now there are loads of freaky shit behind glass dotted all over the place. It feels more than a little eery.

"I don't know," The Doctor replies distractedly, "it's some kind of signal throwing the TARDIS off course."

Well that's helpful. What's the point of travelling with an all knowing genius space boy when he doesn't even know anything? Exactly, now point at all.

"Useless, you are." I tell him.

The Doctor waves a hand back at me and says sarcastically,

"Yes, yes, your insults wound me deeply."

"They aren't insults," I reply mock haughtily, "they're facts that I have a lot of evidence to back up."

"Do you even want to know where we are?" The Doctor asks sounding impatient.

He turns back to me and I shrug as if I really couldn't care less either way.

"My apologies space boy, I was under the impression that you don't know where we are."

The Doctor narrows his eyes at me. I narrow my eyes back at him.

He looks away first. I call a silent win.

"Earth. Utah, North America. About half a mile underground." The Doctor says dryly, and he continues to bumble around poking things, looking like the deranged uncle of Danny from Grease with his leather jacket.

"Do you know what year it is?" I ask, as I bumble around poking things, looking like Sandy's rough cousin with my ripped jeans and tight vest top. But I bumble around poking things in a dignified way that doesn't look ridiculous.

"2012." The Doctor answers curtly.

"You know, if I wanted to go to America seven years in my future, I could have just waited seven years and then caught a cheap flight." I says, mostly just to be annoying. I love to ruffle the Doctor's feathers, it's become a new favourite hobby of mine.

As predicated the Doctor huffs in annoyance and mutters something like,

" _Earth girls. Nothing but trouble_."

The Doctor suddenly flips a switch on the wall and the whole building lights up, revealing more cases of alien shit.

"Woah, that's a lot of alien merchandise right there." I say, gaping a little bit.

"Hmmm, someone has a hobby," The Doctor agrees. "They must have spent a fortune on this."

We both start wandering through, peeking in at the alien stuff. The Doctor points things out to me,

"Meteorite. Moondust. That's the milometer from the Rosewell spaceship."

I point at a stuffed alien frog arm,

"Look, it's a Slytherin arms!"

" _Slitheen_." The Doctor corrects.

"Meh, details." I wave him off.

Although that does remind me of the argument we were having right before the TARDIS had a panic attack and took us here. I look over at the Doctor and say,

"Don't think I've forgotten what we were discussing before just because we've been sidetracked here. I'm still not satisfied with your answer to my question."

The Doctor actually groans and says,

"For the last time, THERE IS NO HOGWARTS!"

I peer at him critically,

"I find that hard to believe considering everything you've shown me so far. I figure you're under some kind of oath not to tell me, maybe you made an unbreakable vow with J.K. Rowling or something."

The Doctor just shakes his head in exasperation at me.

Then something catches his attention and ambles over to a metal face. It looks like part of a robot. Whatever it is, it appears to have some kind of affect on the Doctor. I walk up behind him and ask,

"What's that then?"

"An old friend of mine. Well, an enemy actually." The Doctor says, sounding almost whistful. Weirdo.

"Yeah, well, you seem to make a lot of those." I say.

"Friends?" He asks.

"Enemies." I answer.

The Doctor reaches forward and pokes the glass between him and the metal man head.

Then shit gets real.

Sirens starts to go off, loud enough to make my eardrums ache. A few moments later a load of army shitheads with guns show up and aim them right at us.

I slap the Doctor's arm and say,

"You just have to poke it, didn't you?"

...

"And this is the last. Paid 800,000 for it." Cute tech geek says.

He hands over a very alien looking thingy to the clearly major doughorama man sitting behind the desk.

The Doctor and I were led into his office by armed whatsits.

"What is it?" Douchepants asks all douche-like and snatches the alien thingy away from cute tech geek.

"Well, you see the tubes on the side? They must be to channel something, maybe fuel." Button face says.

"I really wouldn't hold it like that," The Doctor interrupts.

"Shut up!" A lady with amazing curly hair snaps.

I glare at her,

"You shut up."

Sorry, reflex from having a sister.

"Ever," The Doctor says warningly. Bitchfoot glares at me and I curb the impulse to poke my tongue at her, because despite what my lizard brain might want me to believe, I am no longer five years old.

I look at the Doctor and shrug,

"I don't like being told to shut up."

"She wasn't talking to you," The Doctor argues.

I scoff,

"Yeah, but you're part of team _Unicorn_ _and Doctor_ , which means a shut up to you is a shut up to me."

The Doctor nods,

"Fair enough then." He turns back to douchey and adds, "Really though, that's wrong."

"Is it dangerous?" Button face asks.

"No, it just looks silly," The Doctor says, and he reaches forward to take the alien thingy.

All the guns get offended and the Doctor pauses.

Douchepants holds up a finger to stop them from shooting us and then hands over the alien thingy to the Doctor.

Then the Doctor starts stroking the alien thingy and a high pitches it emits a high pitches sound. It reminds me of a harmonica.

"You just need to be...delicate."

"It's a musical instrument," Douchebubble states.

"Thank you for that not at all obvious observation," I mutter under my breathe.

I don't want to get shot after all.

The Doctor must have heard though because he shoots me a look. I ignore him.

"And it's a long way from home," The Doctor says, returning his attention to the alien thingy.

Douchecup snatches back the alien harmonica,

"Let me try."

"It needs a gentle touch," the Doctor instructs, "It reacts to the slightest brush of fingers."

Doucheboo carefully strokes the alien harmonica until it starts playing the same music as before.

"Very good," the Doctor praises, "Quite the expert."

Douchevamp raises an eyebrow back,

"As are you."

Oh my God, it's like a awkward first date in here.

Douchepacket then throws the alien harmonica away like it's a coke can. I'm offended on behalf of all alien harmonica's everywhere.

"Who exactly are you?" he asks.

"I'm the Doctor. Who are you?"

Ohh, he sound a bit pissed. Not good.

"Like you don't know," Doucheprat says. I can't stop looking at his moustache. It's so off putting, I hate it. I want to...shave...it...off. Like really badly. Someone bring me a razor!

Doucheclock continues,

"We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artefacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake."

Hmm, he sounds skeptical about that.

"Pretty much sums me up, yeah," The Doctor says, and he does that stupid clown grin thing.

"Question is, how did you get in," Douchebutt gets up from his desk and wanders around to us, "Fifty-three floors down with your little cat-burglar accomplice." He leers at me. "Quite a collector yourself, she's rather pretty." He reaches out to touch my cheek.

I slap his hand away and then point at him viciously. Oh yeah, pointing can be vicious, mark my words.

I all but snarl at him,

"Touch me again, you twatwaffle, and I will shove my foot so far up your arse that you'll be able to taste the dirt on my boots."

But instead of being frightened, as he should very well be, Douchecat merely grins and says,

"And she's English too." He looks over at Button face, "Hey, little lord fauntlory, got you a girlfriend."

I wave at him ironically.

That seems to inspire cognitive thought in Button face, because suddenly he steps forward and says,

"This is Mr Henry Van Stratten," he gestures at Douchefolk.

I give the moustache wearing a human a cold once over and then say,

"And who's he, the owner of Walmart?"

"He owns the internet, actually," Button face says.

I make a face,

"Close enough."

"So you're an expert just about everything except what you have in your little museam. What you don't understand, you lock up." The Doctor says, not sounding any more impressed than I am.

And that is a whole lot of not impressed folks.

"And you claim greater knowledge." Douchebottle questions.

"I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am." The Doctor says smugly.

"And yet I captured you, right next to the cage. What were you doing down there?"

"You tell me."

Oh for the love of ice cream, must this go on?

"The cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know."

"Show me."

"You wanna see it?"

I say,

"Ok, I've officially forgotten what we're even talking about now. Take away the context and this conversation sounds way weird. And just a little bit gay."

I'm ignored though, as always.

"Goddard! Inform the cage that we're heading down!" Douchenozzle orders Bitchfoot. He whips around to Button face, "You, English, look after the girl."

I get the feeling that he doesn't believe me about the whole foot up arse thing. I'd be more than happy to educate him.

Button face looks at me as Douchenozzle strides away with the Doctor on his heels.

"Behave," the Doctor tells me.

"You behave, space boy." I tell him right back.

He grins at me over his shoulder, and I roll my eyes.

...

"Sorry about the mess. Mr Van Stratten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods." Button face says as he leads me into his...workshop?

I amble around, touching things I'm probably not supposed to touch. You know, the usual.

"Tell me what you think this is," Button face says.

I turn to face him and move over to take the alien thingy from his hands. I fiddle with it for a while, letting my fingers slide along the surface of the space thingy. I bite my lip thoughtfully.

"Go on then, tell me what it is." I smile at him.

Button face smiles back and says,

"I think it's...no actually I'm certain it's from the hull of a spacecraft."

"Or part of a space toilet," I say with a smirk.

Button face laughs a little, but continues a bit more intensely,

"But the thing is, it's all true. Everything that the United nations try to keep secret. Aliens, spacecraft's, visitors to earth...it all exists."

I do my best to look suitably shocked and awed,

"I don't know mate, it all sounds a bit far fetched to me."

"I know it sounds incredible," Button face says, leaning in a little closer to me, "But I honestly believe that the whole universe is teeming with life."

Aww, he's so cute. I wanna give him a cuddle or something.

"And you...what? Scavenge for alien thingies and...take note of them?" I say, arching an eyebrow at him.

Button face smiles again,

"Best job in the world."

I tilt my head to the side, regarding him carefully before saying,

"Wouldn't you want to actually get out there though? See the stars and the other planets and the aliens."

"Yeah. I'd give anything. But I don't think it's ever going to happen. Not in our lifetimes." Button face says.

I give a little shrug,

"You never know. You could be one of those lucky buggers who gets abducted, or as us professionals call it, alinenapped."

Button face laughs and says,

"I'm pretty sure everyone who thinks they've been abducted are nutters."

"Meh, probably." I consider him again, "What's your name by the way?"

"Adam." He holds out his hand to me, "You?"

"Ever."

"Pretty name." He says.

"Pretty face." I wink at him, and he blushes like a good English boy should.

"How did you end up here?" I ask him.

"Mr Vaan Stratten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit." Adam says with a shrug.

I raise my eyebrows suggestively,

"Ah, so I'm in the presence of a genius?"

"Too right," Adam says, "I can't help it, I was born clever. When I was eight I hacked into the US defence system. Nearly caused world war three."

I snort out a laugh,

"When I was eight I used a bunch of old parts from a junk yard to build a unicorn sculpture."

"Ah, so you were just weird." Adam teases.

" _Was_? Hmm, that's a bit optimistic."

"Nah, but you should have seen all those people running about thinking the end of the world was coming. It was fantastic!" Adam says, grinning.

I shake my head,

"I think the Doctor would like you."

Adam's eyes me thoughtfully,

"Are you and the Doctor...?"

My eyes widen and I shake my head,

"No way! He's...he's... _the Doctor_."

"Oh. Good." Adam says.

"Why, good? Planning on asking him out on a date? I'll tell you right now, he doesn't like flowers, so take that out of the wooing itinerary."

"Not the Doctor I was thinking about."

I smirk at him again, but reply, changing the topic,

"You got any way of seeing what's downstairs?"

Adam moves around to his computer and I follow,

"Well, I am a genius, so I could hack into the comm system and take a look."

"Hop to it then, genius boy." I say, slapping his shoulder companionably.

...

It looks so...defeated.

I move closer to the alien I saw being relentlessly tortured on Adam's computer. I couldn't allow such a terrible thing to continue, so I demanded that Adam bring me down here. The Doctor would never stand for anyone to be treated like this, no matter what species it is. I have to find a way to get this creature out of here.

The alien really does look like a high tech bin holding a whisk and a plunger. All the same I can't help but feel a bit intimidated by it.

Maybe it's just the chains that make it look dangerous to me.

"My name's Ever Tyler...I want to help you. Are you hurt? I know good Doctor. Do you feel any pain?"

There's a long pause, and then a stiffly mechanic voice says,

" _Yes."_

I lean in a little closer to the creature,

"Yes what?"

The creature lifts it's glowing blue eye so that I feel like it's looking right at me.

" _Yes, I am in pain. They torture me...and still they...fear me. Do you fear me?"_

A little bit.

"No." I say instead.

" _I am dying."_

I shake my head fiercely,

"No, I have someone who can help you, I swear it. We'll get you out."

" _I...welcome...death. But I am glad that before I die, I met a human who was no afraid."_

"I can help you, just tell me what you want." I say, feeling horribly helpless.

" _My race is dead. I shall die alone."_

A tangle of hot despair and anger coils up inside me. How dare these people torture a creature who has clearly already lost so much. That old need to comfort takes ahold of me and reach out to place a hand on the creature.

"Ever no!" Adam calls out. But it's too late.

The broken creature suddenly starts going beserk. Like for real though.

" _Genetic material extrapolated!"_ It screeches in that tinny voice. " _Initiate cellular reconstruction!"_

Not good. So very really completely not good.

The magic dust bin escapes breaks free of it's chains, still screeching some bullshit space talk. That shithead who tortured the magic dust bin comes striding in looking all shithead-like and snaps at me,

"What have you done? You idiot!"

I JUST TOUCHED A THINGY!

Ok, new rule, no more touching alien thingies without the Doctor.

Shithead 3000 wanders over to the magic dust bin and sneers,

"What you gonna do? Sucker me to death."

He doesn't even get to stop being a prick before the magic dust bin sucks his face off with it's plunger.

Is it wrong that I'm kind of on the side of the magic dust bin right now?

Adam all but yanks me from the room.

"The magic dust bin is having a dramatic moment!" I shout at the guns strapped to humans. "Do something!"

I'm not sure what that something should be, but then I'm not an alien expert, that's supposed to be the Doctor's job. Where the hell is he? If that twatwaffle has abandoned me AGAIN, I'll kick his ginormous nose off.

Everyone starts shouting about 'code read' and blah blah blah-ness.

I don't see how shouting will help anything. Then again, where I come from, shouting is pretty much everyone go to when trying to solve a problem.

"You've got to keep it in that cell," I suddenly hear the Doctor's voice, and I turn around to see his stupid face the screen of a computer.

"Doctor!" I exclaim.

The Doctor gives me a once over and then sighs,

"Oh, I should have known. What did you do?"

I bite my lip and then say,

"I touched a thingy."

"Why?" The Doctor asks, sounding exasperated.

"I don't know. The magic dust bin was getting all suicidal and emo. I just wangted to help. But then when I touched it the magic dust bin had a spaz attack and plunged a shithead to death." I throw my hands up, at a loss for anything else to say.

The Doctor just shakes his head at me and says,

"Ok, new rule, no touching aliens without me there to supervise."

I would argue...but...well...the situation sort of speaks for itself.

"Fair enough." I agree.

"I've locked it in," a gun wearing a cap slides over and says, "That door has a billion combinations, it won't be able to get out."

The Doctor says,

"The Dalek's a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat."

Show off.

Just as the Doctor said, the magic dust bin escapes from it's cell and the private army start shooting at it. Magic just bin is like, yeah, not even bovered mate.

"Ever! Get out of there now!" The Doctor yells at me.

"Alright, keep your pants on!" I yell back. The bossy prat.

I snag ranger rick and button face and begin my next great escape.

...

Running, running, running. More running.

Jesus, I've never run so much in my life before I met the Doctor.

Adam and I are on the stairs. Running. God damn magic dust bin killed everyone.

Everyone.

And it can FLOAT! Like a ruddy hover board!

My phone rings and I almost groan when I answer it.

"About time you called!"

"Where are you?" The Doctor snaps back at me.

"Level forty-nine, why? You gonna turn my phone into a teleportation device all the way from wherever the fuck you are?"

"This is not the time for you think you're funny," The Doctor says, "The vault is being sealed off at level forty-six."

"Who the bloody hell is doing that?"

"Me."

"Should have known. Was this all an elaborate scheme to kill me and button face."

Adam looks at me over his shoulder as we run,

"Who's button face?" he asks.

I ignore him and wait for the Doctor's response.

"For God's sake just run!" he shouts.

Righto.

I speed up a little. Somehow.

We keep running upstairs until we reach level forty-six and then we run down a long corridor.

"Almost there, space boy, hold the door for me like a gentleman, would you?"

But there's only silence on the other end of the line. Damn it.

Ahead of me, I see the door closing. I push myself forward, pushing past both the stitches attacking my sides.

My breathing is hard and laboured, and sweat beads on my skin. I haven't felt this much pressure since a PE rounders game when I was eight.

Adam manages to slip under the door.

I know before I've even reached the door that I won't make it.

I'm right.

I almost run head first into the metal door. It's sealed. I'm stuck in here. With the magic dust bin.

A moment later I heard the Doctor's frantic voice asking,

"Ever! Where are you? Did you make it?"

"Not quite babe. I was always a crap runner, ask anyone from back home. That's why I got caught doing bad shit all the time. Not fast enough."

I turn around to face the magic dust bin. I feel like it's looking at me. Really looking at me, you know.

I look right on back, unflinching, because that's just the way I am.

I feel hot stinging tears forming in my eyes, and I try my best to push them away. The last thing I want to do is die crying.

"This is goodbye then, Doctor. Remember that this was all my choice, you hear. I know you blame yourself for a lot of bullshit. But not this. Never this. I chose this, and I would choose it again even if I knew the outcome." I say into the phone, wishing like hell that I could say these words to the Doctor's face. I wish I could make him believe them, because I fear he won't. That man covets guilt like no one else in the universe, I'm sure of it.

Something, somewhere, inside my head whispers the words,

_Everybody dies. The when and the how of it don't really matter. All the things you did whilst you were alive are what counts._

I tell myself this over and over again as the magic dust bin moves closer and closer.

I see my own death staring me in the face and refuse to cower from it. I refuse to cower before a creature who knows nothing of me or the things I've done in my life.

I wait patiently for the magic dust bin to go all BLEH and blast me with it's whisk. Ok, that just sounds stupid on so many levels. Who pitched the whisk idea at the meeting when they were trying to decide what their weapon should look like?

After a few very long and intense moments of waiting, I begin to feel a bit annoyed. And dare I say bored?

"Come on then...Chloe, kill me or something."

I'm quite fond of the 'or something' idea if I'm being honest.

And yes I named the magic dust bin Chloe. I didn't think it through alright, don't judge me.

" _I am armed. I will kill_. _It is my purpose._ " Chloe says crankily.

"Yeah, alright, I don't need teasers, I know the story. I saw the trailers." I gesture in the direction of all the dead people.

" _I will kill."_ Chloe repeats.

"Got that, thanks. I think you've done enough killing for one day though. All those people," my breathe catches, "are dead because of you."

" _They are dead because of us_." Chloe corrects.

Well thank you for the guilt trip there.

"Go on the, kill me already! What's stopping you?"

" _I feel your fear."_ The magic dust bin replies.

"Of course I'm afraid, you big dummy!" I shout, getting angry now.

I don't like being played with in this way.

" _Darleks do not fear. Must not fear_." Chloe starts shooting, but not at me. At the wall on either side of my body.

Good sign? Bad sign? It's all a bit up in the air at the moment.

" _You gave me life! What else have you given me? I am contaminated!"_

Rude. Now that's just uncalled for.

Then things get worse when the magic dust bin decides to take me hostage.

" _Open the bulkhead or Ever Tyler dies!"_

I am not best pleased about this.

"You're alive!" The Doctor cries through the intercom.

"Yeah, your murder plan failed, sucks for you." I say, rising up and down on my toes.

"I thought you were dead," The Doctor says.

"If you weren't so busy being ridiculous the maybe you'd have realised I wasn't." I reply with a shrug.

"Still on top snarky form then," the Doctor mutters to me.

" _Open the bulkhead_!" Chloe huffs.

I didn't even know robot dust bins could huff.

"Don't let it out Doctor, don't you dare!" I call out angrily. I'd rather die right now than let this thing loose on the world.

" _What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?"_ Chlose gets bit deep. And a tad valentine card-y.

Again, I am ignored and the Doctor opens the bloody door.

I get marched through like a prisoner, which I guess I am.

...

" _Exterminate!"_

"No, don't kill him!" I can't believe I'm defending the life of Douchezilla, but needs must.

Chloe got all alien rights activist on us and started going postal on Mr Van stroudle or whatever.

"Please, there must be something else you want! Something more important than killing. Tell me what you want!" I plead with the magic dust bin.

The magic dust bin looks between me and van stroudle a few times before saying,

"I want...freedom."

Ok, I can work with that. And again, getting a bit deep for a magic dust bin.

I lead Chloe away from van stroudle and bitchfoot, wondering for a moment where the hell the Doctor is before dismissing the thought. He's somewhere. Probably doing something weird.

When we're close to the exit, or at least I think we are, the magic dust bin shocks me yet again by blasting a hole in the ceiling. A wide beam of sunlight peaks in, shining down on us both.

"Blimey, we both made it out, eh. Nice work team. Sunlight, glad to see that again."

" _How does it feel?"_ the magic dust bin asks.

I move back when the magic dust bin opens up it's metal shell to reveal a baby brain octopus.

Scary and kind of brilliant.

It reaches a slimey tentacle out towards the light. Something about that gesture shifts something inside of me.

From behind me I hear the Doctor's voice,

"Get out of the way!"

I whip around to face him, my response is automatic.

"No way in hell!"

"That thing killed hundreds of people," The Doctor all but snarls.

I take in the fury on his face. I've never seen him look quite like that before.

To be honest it scares me more than almost dying did.

"I know. But killing it won't bring them back. It won't solve anything."

"I've got to do this. I've got to end it." The Doctor says, like it's a mantra inside his head. Hell, maybe it is.

"It's just...you can't Doctor. Not like this. Don't be _this_. Please." I look pointedly at the massive gun that the Doctor is wielding.

For the first time I see the Doctor as the soldier, no, the warrior that he must have once been.

"What's it doing?" The Doctor peers past me at the magic dust bin.

"It wanted to feel the sunlight, Doctor...it didn't kill me, or van stroudle." I say, the words coming out with more force than I initially intended, "I don't know what's happening, but I do know that you can't kill this creature now. _Not like this_. You're better than this. I have to believe that's true or I've been wrong about a lot things since we met."

The Doctor meets my eyes then, and for a moment the Darlek ceases to exist. It disappears along with the rest of the world, the rest of the universe. All that's left is me and the Doctor. The Doctor and I. A time lord and a human, standing off, arguing silently with our eyes about something too big to put a name to.

I hide my sigh of relief when the Doctor lowers his weapon.

There's a shift of his expression, and then the Doctor says,

"I didn't...I wasn't...oh Ever...they're all dead."

" _Why do we...survive?"_ the magic dust bin questions.

"I don't know." The Doctor says.

I think I know, but I won't say so out loud.

" _I am the last of the Daleks."_

"You're not even that," The Doctor says, "Ever did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating."

Kay, missed that part of the briefing.

" _Into what?"_

"Something new." The Doctor pauses, "I'm sorry."

" _I can...feel...so many ideas. So much darkness."_

Welcome to being human. That should be our legacy. Just those words written on a plaque at the end of the universe.

" _Give me orders Ever. Order my destruction_."

Everything in me rebels at the idea. It feel too much like murder, something I never want to be part of.

"I don't want to." I tell it.

" _This is not living. This is sickness. I will not be like you. Order my destruction. Obey! **Obey!** "_

I wage a battle within myself that causes my heart to ache. I don't want to do this. I don't want any part of it. This is not who I am. This is not who I want to be. But then, the Darlek doesn't want to be like me. So what does that say.

"Do it. Die, if that's what you need."

" _Are you frightened Ever Tyler?"_

"A bit, yeah."

" _So am I...EXTERMINATE!"_

I scramble backwards as the Darlek closes up again. I reach out to the Doctor and at the same time he reaches out to me.

His hand grabs my wrist and he yanks my body against his. For once I'm not complaining. I grasp hold of his jacket and hold on tight, turning my attention back to the Darlek.

It rises into the air and self destructs, disappearing completely from existence as it does so.

The Doctor looks down at me. I look up at him.

"You're ridiculous." I tell him.

"You're strange." He tells me.

"I know." We both say at the same time.


	7. The Long Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.

"So, it's 200,00, it's a spaceship...no wait, a space station and-" The Doctor starts the moment we leave the TARDIS, but I cut him off with,

"Oh my flip flop, I cannot _believe_ that I'm travelling around space with a super 'genuis' who doesn't even know the difference between a spaceship and a space station."

The Doctor sputters at me,

"Uh, I just corrected myself and said that it is actually a space station."

I shake my head at him in clear disappointment,

"Yeah, but you got it wrong the first time. How am I supposed to trust anything you say now? You're meant to be the smart one. If you start getting things wrong then there's really no hope for either of us. I might as well just shoot myself with a raygun right now and get it over with."

"A raygun?" The Doctor says incredulously.

"Yeah, like they use in SPACE. You know with the _pew pew_ and all that." I fire pretend ray guns at him.

"There are no rayguns in space." The Doctor says in a flat tone.

I stare at the Doctor. He stares back at me. I lift a pretend raygun up, aim it at his unreasonably large nose and say,

" _Pew_."

"I don't think I like you anymore." The Doctor says dryly.

"Nonsense, you wuv me. I'm the best thing that ever happened to you." I say, waving a dismissive hand at him.

The Doctor rolls his eyes, but I see the spark of fondness in them as well.

Oh yeah, he wuvs me.

"Come on, let's get a move on," The Doctor says, and he strides off to a metal gate thingy.

I follow after him and we climb up some metal space steps. I mean, it looks like normal metal to me, but then, you never know. It could be space metal. I'm not exactly brimming with smarticles about alien space station construction.

We find ourselves moving out into a big observation deck. My mind explodes once more with wonder as I gaze out of the massive window. Down below I see earth, but not earth as I know it. I see the beauty of the universe surrounding me and it takes my breathe away just a bit more with each passing second. I truly believe that nothing, no sight in existence, could compare to seeing my home planet from space.

I know I've see amazing things at the Doctor's side, some very awful and terrifying things too no doubt. But Earth is my home, and it always will be no matter how far I travel or who I become. It astounds me that fate has allowed me this chance. I refuse to give the Doctor all the credit. It's not like his ego needs any more inflating this side of ever.

I barely comprehend the Doctor's presence as he says to me,

"The fourth great and bountiful Human empire. And there it is. Planet earth, at it's height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population 96 billion, the hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle."

When he's finally stopped monologueing, thank God and his many Twitter followers for that by the way, I thought he was never gonna shut up this time, I turn to the Doctor and say,

"You are creepily well informed on the human races progress throughout history. On behalf of the human race, I think I might need to take out a retraining order against you, Doctor."

The Doctor sighs far too dramatically and says without looking at me,

"We were having a moment then. Why do you always have to ruin it?"

I shrug nonplussed,

"I don't know. Something about you just brings the moment-ruiner out in me. I think it's the magic of your nose." Or possibly all the bloody gibberish he's constantly spouting at me.

"You and my nose..." The Doctor mutters under his breathe.

I keep my smirk hidden.

...

"Come on, you'll love this Ever. It's a fantastic time in history, the human race at it's most intelligent." The Doctor says enthusiastically as we stride through the space station.

I open my mouth to reply, but the Doctor is already talking again (surprise surprise).

"Art! Culture! Politics! This era has got fine food, good manners, the works..."

Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda.

"Where are the hover boards? I expect hover boards to be part of the 'fantastic time in history'." I cut off his meaningless rant about...whatever he was saying.

It's then that I practically get knocked over by a dickhead on a bike.

"Get out of the way!" Bike boy growls.

I stumble into the Doctor and shout after bike boy,

"Oi, watch it mate!"

Obviously the Doctor has brought me to the space station of violence. Why does he always take me to the dangerous space stations? The last one I was on almost blew up because a massive skin sample got pissy. Now I'm on a space station with dickheads who ride bikes without any regard for non-bike riding pedestrians! It can only go downhill from this point.

I ignore the Doctor some more as he babbles on. Trust me, it's best that way. Otherwise I start asking questions, and he really hates that.

Both the Doctor and I are pulled up short however when we see a load of fast food stands and a fat bloke shouting at people to stop effing pushing in like arseholes. I'm with the fat bloke on this one, it doesn't matter what year it is,nobody likes a queue cutter. Fact.

I turn back to the Doctor with a raised eyebrow and say,

"Fine food? Now, I'm all for chips, as you know but..."

The Doctor frowns and starts fiddling with his wrist,

"My watch must be wrong."

Oh yeah sure, blame your failure as a genius space boy on your 'wrist'.

The Doctor frowns even harder,

"No...it's working perfectly."

"Ah well," I say with a wave of my hand, "this is the final straw then isn't it? First you don't know if we're on a space ship or a space station, and now you're getting confused about your food standards timeline. Doctor...I think maybe it's time for you to admit that you've lost your mojo."

The Doctor looks somewhat offended and says,

"I have not lost my mojo. My mojo is still very much intact, than you very much. In fact my mojo is at it's height, mojo-wise."

"Ok, you've officially ruined the word 'mojo' for me, so thanks for that." I grumble, crossing my arms and moving to lean against a fast food stand. I hope he feels the power of my disappointment in him.

"My history is perfect," the Doctor complains out loud to himself.

I try very hard not to roll my eyes as the Doctor has some kind of internal battle royale moment. Then, like he's flicked a twitch somewhere inside that messy space boy brain of his, the Doctor grins and says,

"Feel like a gronk burger? Come on lets find a cash point."

Then he's off before I can reply. I watch him ago, unwilling to trail after the weirdo like a stray puppy. It's not like I need the Doctor to find myself around this place. I have time travel skills now. Something strange is going here.

There's no aliens.

I don't know why that bothers me...but it does.

Let the Doctor be my Watson for once, I'm gonna go Sherlock the shit out of this mystery.

...

Right, so I was a total boss and called the Doctor out on his whole 'lets frolic around like twits and pretend nothing is wrong' plan. Because it was stupid. And annoying.

But then, so is the Doctor, so it all fits.

I dragged the Doctor over to two women who appeared to know their shit (if there was any shit to know) and the Doctor tricked them using his psychic wallet. I still don't see anything on that bloody bit of paper. Clearly I am superior to the magic paper.

I called it the magic paper to the Doctor's face once and he almost blew a gasket.

Apparently psychic science does not like or appareciate being compared to magic in any way, shape, or form. Well boo hoo for psychic science because I call it like I see it. And what I _see,_ is a magic piece of paper. So there.

The Doctor and I fired questions at the two women until they coughed up the goods. Basically, this is Satellite five and they're basically a massive space version of the BBC.

One the ladies who knows shit (ALL THE SHIT) enticed me and the Doctor into a white lab room. There's a metal chair in the middle of it and what appears to be an observation area surrounding the chair. I hope they aren't worshiping a chair. Now that would be awkward.

"Right, everybody behave." Lady who knows shit says in a overly enthusiastic tone. "We have management in." She looks over at us and smiles creepily, "How do you want it? By the book?"

"From scratch would be best," the Doctor says with a not very convincing 'I know what I'm doing' nod.

He never knows what he's doing. Trust me, I live with the weirdo.

Lady who knows shit (should we just call her LWKKS for short, yes?) turns back to the people sitting crossed legged in a circle around the mighty chair Jesus.

"Right then, ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undecided or robot, my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni."

Well that name is far too long and silly, I think we'll stick with LWKKS.

"The process of news gathering must be open, honest and beyond bias." LWKKS turns another creepy smile on the Doctor. I immediately start to worry for his virtue. "That's company policy."

Blondie Mc blonderson pipes up then from her position on the floor next to chair Jesus,

"Actually, it's the law."

BOOOM! Oh, LWKKS just got buuuurrrrrned! Like for real, completely burnafied.

"Yes thank you Suki," LWKKS says prissily.

I'm already enjoying myself and nothing has even really happened yet.

LWKKS hops up onto the mini stage and lays down on the Jesus chair. In she allowed to do that? Aren't there rules about who gets to touch the Jesus chair? Who decides what people are worthy? Is there an almighty God-chair?

Gah! So many questions!

I watch as LWKKS fires everything up and all the walls flicker into light bulb mode.

Then LWKKS clicks he fingers and HER HEAD OPENS UP!

What. The. Ever. Living. Fuck. ?

As if that wasn't weird enough, when LWKKS says 'spike', a lazer beam from above opens up and a stream of blue light flows into the hole in her head. I can't even believe that sentence exists in reality.

"Compressed information." The Doctor finally decides to chime in.

"Want to explain that one hot shot," I drawl, my eyes still fixated on the glowing blue shit flowing into LWKKS' head hole.

"Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain _is_ the computer." the Doctor rambles on.

"Jesus, LWKKS must be something special if she can fit all that inside her head." I say, slightly awed.

The Doctor shakes his head at me,

"One, I'm not even going to ask what LWKKS stands for, because I think your answer will give me a headache. Two, nah, she wouldn't remember any of it," he nods at LWKKS. "Her brain would explode. Her mind is the processor. Soon as it closes, she forgets."

Oh well, that's a bit crap.

I point at the circle of chair Jesus disciples and ask,

"What about them?"

The Doctor starts strutting around the room with a pensive look in his face. Oh, bloody hell, here we go.

"They all have tiny chips embedded into their brains, connecting them to her, and they transmit six hundred channels. Every single fact in the empire beams out of this place."

Excellent. Or it would be if that made any logical sense at all. Which it doesn't.

But I've moved far beyond questioning all the freaky space stuff that goes on in the future.

"Looks a bit...matrix-y." I frown thoughtfully, "I don't like it."

The Doctor smiles slightly at me,

"Good, because this technology is wrong."

I find myself unable to stop smirking when I say,

"This is the part where we poke our big noses in where they're not wanted, isn't it?"

The Doctor pulls that grin of his that screams pure trouble and replies,

"Yes, this is that part."

Fantastic!

...

"We are so gonna get in trouble." LWKKS mutters, and she scowls at the Doctor.

The Doctor is, as usual, fiddling about with things using his blue light thingy. I really should get one of those. Maybe I can convince the Doctor to make me one for my birthday.

"We live for trouble," I tell her with a wink.

LWKKS does not look placated in the slightest and she complains,

"You're not allowed to touch the mainframe, we'll get told off."

I nudge the Doctor,

"He likes getting told off."

"Button it, the pair of you," The Doctor gripes distractedly.

"You'll just vandalize the place, someone's gonna notice," LWKKS appears to be getting more and more stressed out.

I attempt to smile reassuringly,

"Nah, it'll be fine. But if worst comes to worst, just tell them we forced you to do it. Trust me, five minutes alone with the Doctor and anyone will believe he's a maniac, you'll get off easy."

The Doctor finally gets the door to open and reveals a wall full of wires and blah blah technology blah blah flashy space buttons blah bleh blah. The Doctor starts fiddling even more intensely I watch him like I know what the hell he's doing.

LWKKS huffs once again and begins to pace,

"Look, I'm not involved in this...I'm going back to work."

"Ok then, have fun," the Doctor says, nonplussed.

I wave at her only half sarcastically.

LWKKS groans and turns back around,

"Well I can't just leave you!"

"I know, he's got that effect on people," I say with a shake of my head. I wipe a hand over my forehead. Jesus, why is it so bloody hot up in this place? I look at LWKKS, "Is there any way you can turn down the central heating? It's boiling."

LWKKS sighs and says,

"We keep asking them to, but apparently there's something wrong with the wind turbines or...something."

The Doctor scoffs,

"'The wind turbines...or something'." He mocks impatiently.

"Well I don't know!" LWKKS snaps crossly.

"Then maybe you should try asking." I say, leaning forward to fiddle with a bright blue wire. "What does this do?" I ask the Doctor.

He smiles down at me and answers,

"That connects to the waste disposal system."

Nice.

I pat the Doctor on the shoulder and turn back to LWKKS,

"See, asking gets results. No one got anything by just standing around and doing nothing. Well...unless you count Kim Kardashian."

The Doctor frowns down at me,

"Who's Kim Kardashian?"

"A giant arse with legs." I reply, still fiddling with the wires absently.

"You people are strange," LWKKS comments with a look of disbelief on her face.

I salute her with two fingers,

"Yep. It's part of our unique charm. I'm the funny one and the Doctor is the smart one...well, he might be. We're actually revising that right now because-"

"I AM the smart one." The Doctor interjects.

I wave a dismissive hand,

"Yeah, yeah, space boy, go play with your flashy buttons and teeny tiny glow stick."

"It's a screwdriver!" The Doctor says, sounding genuinely offended. "We've been through this."

"Well now you're just lying to yourself," I say sadly.

The Doctor sighs loudly and then shoves a computer in front of my face.

"Here, come and have a look," he calls over to LWKKS.

We all gather around the computer screen.

"Look at the layout," the Doctor says.

LWKKS frowns at the screen,

"This is the ridiculous. You've got access to the computers core. You could look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange...and you're looking at pipes."

"He has a lot of weird hobbies," I tell her seriously.

"Hush you," the Doctor gives me a look which I pointedly ignore.

"I'm looking at the pipes because there's something wrong," The Doctor says, gesturing at the screen again.

"Well, yeah, I suppose." LWKKS glances over the screen again, "The ventilation system. Cooling ducts, ice filters. All working flat out. Channelling a massive amount of heat down." Her eyes flicker upwards.

"All the way from the top," The Doctor says, already sounding smug.

"Floor five hundred," I look up as well, wondering. "Something up there is one hot potato."

I hope it's not an actual potato. Frogs have already been ruined for me. I don't want to be attacked by a giant potato.

"We need to get upstairs," the Doctor says.

"You need a key," LWKKS reminds him.

The Doctor rolls back his shoulders and starts messing with the computer again,

"Keys are just access codes, and I've got the access codes right here."

"Well then, what are we waiting for, let go bust in and wreck the place!" I say excitedly.

...

Bloody hell in a handbasket, it's Jack Frost's Dad, Frosty the snowflake man!

We went upstairs to floor five hundred. It's snowy waste land up here.

Of course then we stumbled upon Frosty, who has now taken us prisoner. Rude, by the way.

And there are dead people working at the computers of course. Great.

"Tell me who you are!" Frosty gets all whingy.

The Doctor grits his teeth and says testily,

"Since that information is what's keeping us alive, I'm hardly gonna say, am I?"

"Well perhaps my editor and chief can convince you otherwise," Frosty says, with just the slightest hint of malice to his voice.

Not good.

"And who's that?" The Doctor asks.

"I'll bet it's the man on the moon!" I say, more to amuse myself than anything.

Gah! I'm getting nervous again, please someone shut me up!

Frosty leans in closer to the Doctor and says,

"It may interest you to know that this is not the fourth and bountiful human empire-"

"Yeah, got that part thanks." I interrupt, making a face at Frosty.

"It's not actually human at all. It just so happens that humans are allowed to live here by the kind permission of my client." Frosty says, sounding manically pleased. I think someone is one ice cube short of an ice cube tray.

Frosty points upwards. The Doctor and I, likes dopes, look up as directed.

Oh. Fuck. A. Duck.

Now that is one creepy arse motherfucker right there.

"Doctor...what the frik frak is that?"

"You mean that things in charge of Satellite five," The Doctor says incredulously.

"'That thing', as you put it," Frosty replies, "is in charge of the human race." The mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe."

Well that ain't good.

But I love the name.

"I call him Max," Frosty tells us.

I nod at him,

"That's nice."

You ** _lunatic_**!

...

"Someone's disengaged the safety!" Frosty announces, and he stomps off towards the computers.

"I do not appreciate these hand cuff thingies," I tell the Doctor, waving the black torture devices now attached to my wrists.

The Doctor grimaces slightly,

"Fair enough. I'm not too fond of them myself."

The big screen brings up an image of...LWKKS! I thought I saw her lurking around. She's getting spiked, or whatever the hell they call it. Anyways, it seems to be pissing of Max, which I am all for.

"She's thinking!" The Doctor says, grinning, "She's using what she knows."

"Terminate her access!" Frosty demands heatedly.

"Everything I told her about Satellite five, the pipes, the filters, she's reversing it!" The Doctor says.

All the ice around us starts to melt. I grin right back at the Doctor,

"Hells yes, the freezer door has officially been opened!"

"I said terminate!" Frosty shouts, and then he shoves the dead girl out of his way and tries to do it himself.

But NOPE, LWKKS is having none of that shit. Everything starts exploding!

Including, luckily, the torture cuffs. I manage to wrankle mine off first and I fling them away from me. Then I get to work on helping the Doctor out of his.

"Come on Doctor, get a wriggle on!" I say, a little bit frantic now as the non-potato monster starts wailing and growling something fierce.

"The Jagrafess needs to stay cool," The Doctor says to me, "But now it's sitting on a volcano."

"This is no time to prove your smartilces Doctor!" I shout at him over the EXPLOSIONS!

I pull on the Doctor's arm, forcing him to run with me away from Max the non-potato and out through the now wet wasteland. We need to get out of here God damn it!

The Doctor and I find LWKKS and he switches off the mind-meld stuff.

I hear a loud roar and then another loud explosion. I think the non-potato has left the building.

...

"We're just gonna go. I hate tiding up." The Doctor says to LWKKS.

"But you'll have to stay and explain everything. No one's gonna believe me." LWKKS says, shaking her head.

I look around at the wrecked space station and feel a little bad. Me and the Doctor can never really do anything quietly.

"Well they start believing a lot of things now. There's no one holding the human race back, everything's back to normal." The Doctor says, and I think he's attempting to sound reassuring.

"Come on you, before anything else mental happens," I say, pulling on the Doctor's jacket.

We both get into the TARDIS quickly, just in case.

The Doctor smiles at me, and I roll my eyes right back.

"Do you believe I'm the smart one again yet?" The Doctor asks as he fires up the TARDIS.

I flip my hand from side to side,

"Hmmm, to be fair, LWKKS was the one who did all the work this time."

The Doctor considers that and then nods,

"Good point."

I lean forward on the consul of the TARDIS and eye the Doctor speculatively.

"So, where to next then?"

The Doctor slides a grin my way, making my insides tie up in knots.

"Your choice, where do you want to go?"

I reach over and place my hand on top of his. His brows furrow as he looks down at our hands, and I try to take mine back, feeling a bit stupid. But the Doctor covers my hand with his free hand, trapping mine between his.

He looks up at me expectantly.

I feel a smile forcing it's way onto my face. I give the Doctor a long considering look, and then say,

"Surprise me."


	8. The Empty Child

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.

"Bloody hell, the TARDIS is having a spaz attack!" I shout, quickly reaching to grab onto the consul and steady myself.

The TARDIS is shaking like it's been caught up in a tornado and I'm barely able to stay on my feet.

"What the crippity crap is the emergency at now?" I ask, looking over at the Doctor.

The Doctor starts twisting knobs and pushing buttons in an extra vehement manner, which he only does when he's properly stressed out.

"It's Muave!"

The universal colour for immediate danger.

"Jesus, what's black? The TARDIS exploding?" I yell back at the Doctor.

The Doctor spares me a glance then and says,

"You know, any _normal_ human would ask why it isn't the colour red."

"There was an insult in there somewhere, I just know it." I narrow my eyes at him.

"Yeah, well." The Doctor replies distractedly.

"That was not a satisfactory response. Or a conceivable argument." I throw something at him. I think it's a small lever from the consul. I'm not sure what it does, but nothing is exploding, so I figure it's ok.

"Stop throwing things at me!" The Doctor shouts.

"Stop saying things that make me want to throw things at you!" I shout back.

The Doctor grumbles under his breathe and I stumble closer to him so that I can look over his shoulder at the TV screen. I frown at the metal cylinder that is apparently causing all this.

"It's got a very basic flight computer I've hacked in, enslaved the TARDIS. Wherever it goes, we go." The Doctor tells me over his shoulder.

I grasp his arm and lean in a little closer.

"That doesn't sound safe at all."

"It could be," The Doctor argues almost indignantly.

I stare at the side of the Doctor's head,

"Your words feel like a lie."

Suddenly shit starts blowing up and I turn a glare on the Doctor.

He shrugs and goes back to pushing random buttons.

"Ok. So I lied."

"Oh you bint!" I shove at his shoulder.

"End the violence!" The Doctor shoves back.

"Stop shoving me!" I yell at him.

"Stop doing things that make me want to shove you!" The Doctor yells back at me.

Shit is still blowing up by the way.

"No! No, it's jumping time tracks, trying to get away from us!" The Doctor exclaims.

"What even is this bullshit time capsule?" I ask, taking another long look at the thing on the screen.

"I have no bloody clue." The Doctor says.

"Are you telling me that we're following a potentially dangerous cylinder thingy for NO REASON?" I resist the urge to hit the Doctor again. We really don't have time for his whinging.

The Doctor looks at me then,

"It's mauve and dangerous and about 30 seconds from the centre of London."

Our eyes lock for a few seemingly endless seconds before I sigh heavily and say,

"Fine. We'll follow your cylinder thingy. But you're not allowed to touch it!"

"You can't touch it either then." The Doctor warns.

"I can touch whatever the hell I want, it's landing on MY planet. It is therefore mine until proven otherwise."

"You are so human sometimes, it's scary."

I just grin manically at him.

...

As soon as we've landed, I rush towards the door and throw it open. The cool night air hits my skin and I suppress a shiver. Yep, only earth has this kind of chilly nightime breeze, I'm sure of it.

"Do you know how long you can travel around space without bumping into Earth?" The Doctor mutters as he follows me outside.

"Oh, this isn't like the cow thing is it?" I say, giving him a disapproving look.

"Of all the species in all the universe it has to come out of a cow," The Doctor says, shaking his head in distaste.

"You're such a complainy pants." I roll my eyes at him.

Travelling with the Doctor definitely has it's up and downs, but one thing I will say is that the Doctor is a complete mess of contradictions. I can't get it straight one minute to the next what he's thinking about or feeling or even occasionally thinking and feeling at the same time. God forbid the times you add in _talking_ as well. I would happily shut that one off as if I could.

"It must've come down somewhere quite close. Maybe about a mile away. And it can't have been any more than a few weeks ago. A month at the most." The Doctor says, apparently ignoring my insult. He's gotten into that habit these days.

What he doesn't know is that it only drives me further. In fact it makes me want to annoy him even more.

"You know I really am starting to doubt your ability to fly the TARDIS efficiently." I skip along side the Doctor as we walk across cobbled back streets.

"Oh, do you want to try driving?" The Doctor says, sounding affronted.

"Nah, I'd probably crash it into a star or something." I say with a shrug, "Exactly how far off are we time-wise?"

"A bit." The Doctor answers.

"I don't think you know what 'exactly' means." I thurst my hands into my jacket pockets, the chill biting at the skin of my face.

"Don't you want to know my plan? If I'm going to scan for alien tech or not?" The Doctor asks, throwing me a sideways look.

I wave a hand, not bothering to really pay attention to him as I say,

"I figured we'd just ask. It was a massive bloody space cylinder, I'm sure someone around here noticed. Then again, it is the human race, so maybe not."

"Ah, see now who's getting cynical about humans." The Doctor smiles at me teasingly.

"Oh, don't start." I have to hide my own smile by looking up at the stars.

I've always loved a starry night sky. It seems so otherworldly and magnificent. Even before I knew about all the wonders and terrors the universe holds, I would always think how extraordinary it seemed. For me, the sky represented hope. Hope of something else. Something _more_.

Now I know there is more out there. But in some ways there is actually less. The universe feels so much bigger, but at the same time a more suffocating and dark place, than it ever did before.

We reach a metal door and the Doctor starts using his bleep bleep blue pen to break in. The Doctor begins babbling on about something to do with alien algorithms, but my attention is snagged by the sound of someone calling out for their mother.

The voice is high pitched and child-like, but it's definitely a boy. I take a few steps backwards from the Doctor and look around. A child shouldn't really be out by themselves this time of night. Not in the back alleys especially.

I see the boy suddenly when I look up. He's looking over a stone balcony and...he's wearing a gas mask. Weird. But not the oddest thing I've seen a child do. I once saw one of my neighbours children dress up like a fluffy pigeon and wearing a plastic police badge. That child then went about asking the pigeons around the estate if they had any crimes to report.

Pigeon police. I couldn't decide if it was brilliantly hilarious or completely bonkers. I'm still not sure to this day. But I do appreciate creativity. And madness just for madness' sake.

" _Mummy_." The child calls out again.

A chill spindles down my spine, but I ignore it.

"Are you ok?" I call up to the child.

" _Mummy_." He repeats in the same tone.

Poor boy, he must be lost or something.

I look over to tell the Doctor about it, but he's already gone inside without me. I shake my head. That man is always abandoning me places, and then he wonders why I get into trouble.

" _Mummy_."

"Hold on, I'm coming." I tell the boy.

I find some stone steps that lead up to where the boy is and begin climbing them quickly. I don't want the little boy to run off and get even more lost. His actual mum is probably around here somewhere looking for him.

When I get to the top, the boy isn't where I thought he was. Instead he's on a much higher wall.

"Don't move sweet heart, I'm gonna get up there." I call up to him.

I walk around the wall, trying to find where he climbed up. When I find a rope swining against the side wall I frown at it. Surely that little boy couldn't have used a rope to climb up there, he'd have to be one strong child. But after sweeping around the rest of the building I can't find any other way he could have done it, unless someone helped him. There doesn't seem to be anyone else around though.

In fact, the streets appear eerily quiet. Maybe it's later at night than I thought.

I go back to the rope and give it a considering glance. To be honest, I don't know if I'm strong enough to climb the damn thing. But I roll my shoulders back anyway and take hold of the rope in two hands, my grip firm and hopefully steady.

About half way up I realise, yes, this is just as hard as I thought it would be. Harder even. I ain't no Olympic rope climber. I'm not even an average rope climber. This is my first time right here.

They always make it seem so easy in American high school films. Damn you America and all your little stunt doubles too.

" _Mummy_." The boy says again. I catch sight of him and he points above us. " _Balloon_."

I just about crap myself when I see the big balloon thing that I am apparently hanging from. It's about that time when the ballon starts moving, taking me along with it. I hold in a scream. Just.

Instead of losing my shit like I want to, I tighten my grip on the rope and wrap my legs up in it. If I'm really lucky, even if I do fall, the rope should snag my legs or foot. One can always hope after all.

I seem to be going higher and higher so I do my best not to look down. Which turns out to be pretty easy because of what I see right in front of me.

Yeah, ok, we're at war.

There are war planes and balloons and explosions all over the bloody place. I do NOT feel comfortable right now. Not even a little bit.

"Doctor!" I shout, "Where are you, you lunatic?!"

This is clearly just his latest attempt to off me. I feel like maybe this time he will succeed.

He better not, or I will haunt his nose for all eternity.

A group of planes come flying past and I almost let go of the rope. The sound of bombs going off around me is defeaning. It takes a lot of inernal pep-talking not to scream or thrash around like pissed off fish.

Of course then that all goes to fuckbiscuit when a plane knocks me right off. I let the scream loose then as I fall. If I'm gonna die right now, then the whole bloody world is gonna know about it god damn it.

My scream is cut off abruptly when I'm caught in some kind of blue...sonic...ray...it's alien ok. Lets just stick with that for now. And it's stopping me from falling to my death, so I'm not gonna complain about it.

"Ok, I got you!" I hear a voice shout up to me from...wherethefuckever.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" I call back, not willing to trust any kind of space crap that doesn't include the Doctor.

Maybe especially then, actually.

"I'm just programming your descent pattern." Mr. I don't like to answer reasonable questions says.

"I'll give you a descent whatsit in a minute!"

Whoever this is, they're gonna get one hell of a smack if they don't get me down in the next five seconds.

"Hold on tight!" He tells me. The sod.

"Hurry. Up." I demand. At any moment a fucking plane could bump into me, I am not at my most reasonable right now, ok.

And then I'm falling. Again. But it's a more controlled falling this time so I manage not to scream. Quite so loudly.

My brain feels all muddled when I finally land with a thump into someone arms. Strong arms. I approve. They don't seem the type to drop me. The Doctor would so definitely drop me.

"Hey, I've got you. You're fine. I've got you." Strong arms says. He sounds American. I take back my approval just a little bit.

Then I open my eyes and get a good look at his down right handsome face and my approval rating goes back up again.

"Well hello pretty." I say to him.

"Hello to you too," He says, a grin twitching the corners of his mouth.

"You can put me down now," I gesture at the floor meaningfully.

"Are you sure you're alright?" He asks, sounding genuinely concerned.

"Well, for someone who fell out of the sky, yeah, sure, lets go with that." I answer with a firm nod.

Pretty boy sets me down and I hold onto his arms to stop myself from fucking over once my feet touch the floor.

"Crikey, did you roofie me with your blue space shield machine?"

I touch my head, it bangs like I've hit it against a wall a few dozen times in the last few minutes.

Pretty boy chokes out a sound that does not inspire trust at all.

"You look like you might faint." He says.

"You look like you should be wearing nothing but underwear on the front of a magazine, what's your point?" I counter, shaking my head one again to get rid of fuzziness.

"Do you feel like laying down?" Pretty boy asks me, gesturing at a bunk right next to us.

I give him a suspicious look and say,

"That's not a very good line. I thought someone with your face would have better ones. Try again."

"That wasn't a line, you just look dizzy." Pretty boy argues valiantly.

"You're also not a very good liar. Another thing that surprises me. You should really work on your flirting and lying skills." I inform him, finally letting go of his arms and moving away so I can be nosy about his ship, or whatever this is.

It looks like a spaceship to me. A proper one. Not a box with a house inside it.

"Well aren't you a scrappy one," Pretty boy says, his eyebrow firmly raised in question.

"Who are you anyway?" I ask, looking the man up and down. He doesn't seem that old, maybe mid to late twenties. He has classically handsome features and head full of dark brown hair. His eyes are either pale blue, or cloud grey, and I see more guarded curiosity in them than I have in a long time in anyone else's.

"Captian Jack Harkness, Royal Air Force. American Volunteer." He takes out a pad of paper and hands it to me.

There's nothing on it.

"Like I said, you're a bad liar," I hand the paper back, "That's psychic paper."

"How do you know that?" Pretty boy asks, leaning forward a little more to really look at me.

"Well, a mate of mine uses psychic paper pretty regularly to break into places, so I can tell." I lean against the wall and smirk at him, unable to help myself.

"You are just full of surprises," Pretty boy says, but he doesn't sound put off by it. In fact, he seems a bit more intrigued.

"I'm really great. Just know that now." I say.

Pretty boy looks down at the psychic paper again,

"It says on here that you have an ex boyfriend named Mickey who is now dating your sister...and that you have a complicated relationship with your Doctor."

"Sounds about right," I say with a nod. "So is your name actually Jack Harkness or should I just continue to call you 'Pretty boy' inside my head?"

He laughs at that and says,

"My name is Jack Harkness, but feel free to call me whatever you want." He winks at me.

"Oh, you are gonna regret those words my friend. I am the queen of nicknames." I poke his chest. Firm. Muscled. _Nice_.

"We'll see...and who are you?" Jack pretty face says, his browns furrowing as he just figured something out.

"I'm the Unicorn." I tell him with the most honest smile I can come up with. And then, before he can argue, I add, "You aren't from around here are you?"

Jack gives me an 'oh really' look and then peaks down at his watch. Or it looks like watch. It could be a ray gun disguised as a watch, I don't know. I'm not the genius one. Where is my genius space boy? I need him for these types of scenarios.

"A cell phone, liquid crystal watch, and fabrics that won't be around for at least another two decades. I'm guessing you're not exactly local." Jack says, but I'm ignoring him now.

I have stuff to touch.

I go around poking things and just generally touching anything that looks alien-y.

When I touch the wrong thing, my hands burn quite unexpectedly and I leap away from it with a harsh curse.

"Your ship just bitch burned me." I accuse Jack.

"Do you often go around touching men's ships like this?" Jack asks, the innuendo practically forcing it's way down my throat.

Ok, seriously, that was not as dirty inside my head, I promise you.

I glance over at Jack Mc pretty face and say,

"Only the interesting alien ones."

"That's a very specific kink," Jack teases, a smirk definitely playing about his lips now.

"I'm a very complex individual." I reply, smirking right back.

"Let me take a look at your hands," Jack says, gesturing at the burns on my palms.

Woah, conversational zig zag.

I move over to him again and hold out my hands,

"Why am I showing you my hands?"

Jack takes off his scarf and starts to wrap it around my wrists. I jerk away suddenly,

"Um, the polite thing to do is ask for my safeword first," I say, frowning at Jack.

Jack rolls his eyes good nataturedly,

"Calm down, blondie, I'm just trying to help you."

"That's what they all say," I reply distractedly.

Jack leans over me to press a few buttons. A moment later a few dozen little balls of light flicker to life in my hands. I can feel the heat of them against my skin, but they sooth away the burns like they're cold.

"Excellent, what are these?" I ask Jack, still staring at the balls of light in wonder.

"They're Nanogenes, subatonic robots. The air in here is full of them." Jack replies studiously.

"Do you have anything to drink around here?" I ask once the Nanogenes have disappeared.

Jack smiles at that and reaches behind him into a compartment to pull out a bottle of something. As long as it's alcohol I really don't care. I need a stiff one after the last hour.

Don't. Even.

...

"Hello, Captain Jack Harkness, it's great to meet you. I've heard a lot about you on the way over here." Jack takes the Doctor's hand and shakes it.

After our drink, I conjoled Jack into finding the Doctor for me. We trailed him to a hospital near the crash sight of that cylinder thing.

The Doctor gives me a look of confusion and I say,

"I, uh, had to tell him the truth. He knows...he knows we're time agents." I widen my eyes a bit, hoping to get my point across.

The Doctor nods at me in understanding and turns a small smile on Jack.

Jack grins at the Doctor and says,

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Nose. Your companion the Unicorn thinks very highly of you."

The Doctor raises an eyebrow at me and I try my absolute best not to laugh in his face.

"I know she does." The Doctor says meaningfully.

Jack nods once more and then passes both of us, striding down the corridor purposefully.

The Doctor leans in close to me and says,

"Mr _Nose_? Really?"

"I was under pressure, alright. It's not like you have a proper name. I couldn't tell him you were called just 'the Doctor'. Most rational people don't accept that kind of ridiculousness." I cross my arms defensively.

"Oh, but it's alright for him to call you 'the Unicorn'." The Doctor counters easily.

I make a face at him,

"Everyone likes Unicorns, ok. Don't be jealous of my clearly superior likeability."

The Doctor huffs,

"You worry me."

"I've been saying that about you since we met," I grin mischievously, which causes the Doctor to huff again.

Ha, result!

"Where have you even been? We're in the middle of a German air raid, it's not exactly a good time for a stroll." The Doctor questions as we both move off to follow after pretty boy.

"Actually, I was kidnapped by a balloon. So there."

He is so annoying sometimes. Strike that, all the time.

I meant all the time.

"What's a Chula Warship?" I ask the Doctor.

"What?" The Doctor looks honestly confused.

We catch up the Jack soon enough and the Doctor starts in on the inquisition.

"What's a Chula warship?" the Doctor repeats the question to Jack, sounding suspicious.

I knew this bloke was dodgy. Pretty, but still dodgy.

"He said he stole it and parked it out there," I gesture out the window towards the crash site, "Apparently a bomb is going to fall on it any minute. Unless we make him an offer."

"What kind of warship?" The Doctor asks, his mean game face is on now.

Jack is screwed.

"Does it matter?" Jack says. He pacing. That ain't a good sign. "It's got nothing to do with this." He points at the people lying in the beds. Their faces now turned into gas masks.

Just like that little boy from before.

"This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with this. What kind of warship?" The Doctor stalks closer to Jack.

"An ambulance." Jack admits reluctantly.

Jack opens up his 'watch' and shows us a hologram of the cylinder.

"Look, it's nothing, just space junk. I wanted to kid you into thinking it was valuable. It's empty."

"You sneaky shit," I say, shaking my head. Never trust the pretty ones. Even the alien pretty ones.

"It was a con. I'm a conman!" Jack says, pointing at his own chest. "I thought you were time agents. You aren't are you?"

I wish I was a time agent, that sounds really wicked.

_Hello, I'm Agent Tyler, a.k.a code name: The Unicorn._

See, cool.

"Nah, we're just normal time travellers." I say with a shrug.

Are there normal time travellers? I'll have to ask that one later. It's not like we've run into any so far. I wouldn't really class the Doctor as a normal _anything_.

"Ah, I should've known. You aren't exactly blending in, what with your shirt," he points at my black Batman vest top, "and you," he shakes his head at the Doctor, "leather boat captain."

Leather boat captain. Epic. I'm keeping that one.

The Doctor groans and says,

"Oh, why did you have to say that? Now she'll never stop calling me the leather boat captain." He scowls at me.

"I think I'll make a banner for the TARDIS that declares the leather boat captain as it's owner." I say thoughtfully.

"Anyway, whatever's happening here, it has nothing to do with that ship!" Jack declares crossly.

"Human DNA has been rewritten." The Doctor says, looking around at the patients. "But why? What's the point?"

Ominous. Fantastic. Just how I like my mysteries.

We are so very screwbubbled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone for reading and please review! xxx
> 
> A/N-Yes, I'm sorry, I did skip an episode. But only because I never liked that episode and I didn't think it would be something Ever would want or do. x
> 
> Ever salutes you! x


	9. The Doctor Smiles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.

I go around snooping at all the gas-mask people. The Gassians. Yep, that's what I'm calling them.

The Doctor might not approve, but who the hell cares what space boys think? That's right, no one. I'm certainly not going to put up with any of his riff raff nonsense.

"Why do this lot have gas masks attached to their faces?" I ask, turning to look at the Doctor.

The Doctor narrows his eyes at me and says,

"Don't touch anyone."

I gasp and suck in an outraged breathe, glaring at the Doctor,

"I wasn't going to touch them."

"Good." The Doctor nods, satisfied. "Don't."

"I wasn't _going_ to." I snap, irritated beyond belief.

"Don't do it." The Doctor warns, his expression firm, his eyes hard.

"I'm not touching anyone!" I shout at him, throwing my hands up in exasperation. "But maybe I should if you're going to be an arsehole about it!"

The Doctor and I stare at each other for a long moment. Then he says,

"Don't."

"I _wasn't going to_!"

"You know you two are cute." Jack Mc liar pants on fire says, his eyes darting between us. He appears somewhat amused. I do not appreciate it.

The Doctor turns on Jack attack then and demands,

"How was your con supposed to work?"

"Simple enough really." Jack attack explains reluctantly, "Find a piece of space junk, let the nearest time agent track it back to earth, convince him it's valuable and name a price. When he's paid 50% up front, a German bomb falls on the space junk and destroys it. The time agent never sees what he's paid for, he never knows he's been had."

"Sounds boring." I mutter, turning away from the Doctor and Jack attack so I can continue to poke around the hospital room.

I don't need to be looking at the Doctor to know that he's silently judging Jack. I've seen him use that 'I disapprove of your existence in my personal breathing space' look on many people. It always makes them squirm. Jack attack is no exception. After a few moment of uncomfortable silence he says,

"I'm sensing some disapproval."

"Take a look around you," The Doctor snaps harshly, "Look at what your piece of space junk did."

"It was a burnt out medical transporter. It was _empty_." Jack argues.

They have another manly stare off, which I ignore in favour of wondering towards the door. I turn back to look at them and say,

"Doctor, yeah, I'd hate to break up this magical moment you're having with Jack attack over there, but haven't we got important shit to do?"

The Doctor breaks eye contact with Jack and nods in my direction.

"You're right, we have to make a move." The Doctor strides towards me without looking back at our new fwend. "Lets go upstairs." He says to me.

"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living. I harmed no one." Jack calls after us.

I look over my shoulder and fix with a penetrative stare. I say coolly,

"Maybe you did, maybe you didn't, but either way, something went shit ways and now we've got to make it right."

I quickly chase after the Doctor.

...

"Have you got a blaster?" The Doctor as Jack when we slide to stop outside a seemingly locked and bolted metal door.

"Sure." Jack says almost eagerly. Weirdo.

The Doctor points at the metal door,

"Someone was injured the night that 'harmless' space junk landed. They took him here."

"Injured? In what way?" I ask, frowning at the Doctor.

"Let's find out," He says, and nods towards Jack, "Open it."

Bossy.

Jack attack takes out a space zeep zap gun and points it at the door. I watch as the gun seemingly dissolves the lock.

"Want to explain to me what that was?" I poke the Doctor's arm.

He gives me one of those manic looks that I just know means he's thinking about too many things at once.

"Sonic Blaster, fifty-first century. Villiage Factories of Villengard." The Doctor tells me.

Jack attack looks at the Doctor sharply, clearly surprised by the Doctor's knowledge. I'm never surprised by anything that comes out the Doctor's mouth anymore. I just assume he knows everything, and then when he reveals that he doesn't know something I get irrationally annoyed with. The system works. It's like we're involved in some kind of loveless marriage that we just can't be bothered to divorce out of.

"You've been to the factories?"

The Doctor responds in his usual way by poking around with things he probably shouldn't be. He nicks Jack attack's weapon thingy and starts fiddling with it. I take a step away from both of them There's a good chance Jack attack might end up with a square shaped hole in his chest.

"Yep. Once." The Doctor says.

Jack attack frowns at the bleep bloop gun,

"They're gone now, destroyed. Main reactor went critical, vaporised the lot."

The Doctor smiles slightly at this, and I roll my eyes. Of course he had something to do with it. Every time there's a disaster it's pretty fair to assume that the Doctor was somehow involved.

"Like I said. Once." The Doctor shoves the bleep bloop gun at Jack attack, and he looks over at me, "There's a banana grove there now. I like bananas. Bananas are good."

I scowl at him and say,

"Alright grandpa, we don't need all the details."

"Grandpa?" The Doctor mutters, appearing confused for some reason.

I shake my head at him,

"You know sometimes I think you're a brilliant man. And then other times you open your mouth and complete nonsense comes out. It's those times which convince me that you are in fact just a mentally ill old alien. Like E.T."

The Doctor looks supremely offended by that. He points at himself,

"I do not look anything like _E.T_."

I consider his protest for a few moments and then say,

"Alright, fine. E.T. with hair then."

And a massive nose. But I won't say that out loud otherwise the Doctor might throw a hissy fit about E.T. and bananas and handsome strangers named Jack attack and other such rubbish.

The Doctor waggles a finger at me like he knows what I'm thinking anyway even if I don't actually say it.

"You bother me." He says.

I form a heart with my fingers, press it against my chest, and then pretend to break that heart into two pieces whilst making an exploding noise. This seems to just incense the Doctor further and he gives me a mighty mouse glare before storming off.

I go to follow after him, but Jack attack stops me by placing a hand on my arm. He leans in close and asks,

"Is it always like that with you two?"

I shrug one shoulder and say,

"He's so sensitive sometimes."

Jack attack's expression becomes a cross between amusement and bewilderment. I like to keep my friends in a constant state of both of those things. So well done me.

I pull away from his hold and hurry to catch up with the Doctor. I'm surprised when I see what looks like an interrogation room that has been smashed apart by a tornado. A pissed off tornado. A pissed off tornado with mummy issues. A pissed off tornado with mummy issued and no respect for the po po (that's the police in tornado-speak).

"What do you think?" The Doctor asks grimly.

"Well, something definitely got out of here." Jack attack says, gesturing at the broke glass and the smashed in window.

Probably the tornado was trying to get his confession tape back.

"And?"

From that time when the tornado was arrested before.

"Something powerful. Angry."

God damn tornadoes. Can't trust any of 'em.

"Powerful and angry," The Doctor intones gravely.

What were we talking about again?

"Something powerful and angry wanted to get out of here. And from the looks of things, it did." The Doctor mutters to himself.

That ain't good.

Both the muttering and the powerful and angry bit. Neither bode well for the situation we are now in.

I walk into the room on the other side of the smashed window and I'm only slightly less surprised when I find child-like crayon drawings all over the walls.

Dun dun dun! A baby tornado!

I knew it.

"A child?" Jack attack exclaims from behind me. "Well I guess that explains 'mummy'."

"A child smashed through a window?" I say, mostly to myself. I think back to that boy from earlier on tonight, the one I tried to get to by climbing up a rope. Of course that moment of heroism failed dramatically, but still.

I jump in place when the old recorder creaks to life. Something harsh and white hot slices into me when I hear the words,

"Mummy. Are you my mummy? Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."

It's haunting in a way that's difficult to describe. I feel sympathy wash through me. The boy sounds so lost, so small, so...alone. I remember feeling the same way myself sometimes as a child. Feeling helpless and confused.

My eyes lock onto the Doctor's, and we share a moment of complete understanding. I know that if there's one person in the world who understands loneliness it's the Doctor. I'm seeing it in him more and more with every day we travel together. I think he tries to hide it from me. But when you live with someone and you're around them tweny-four seven, it can be hard to hide the things that truly define you.

The Doctor is lonely. Always lonely. Even when he's surrounded by people. I see it in his eyes. I read it on his face. I feel it emanating from him like heat from a fire. Sometimes I worry that his loneliness will rise up and consume him in flames of pain and anguish.

I'll have to work hard to make sure that never happens.

I care about the Doctor.

I'm pretty sure that makes me the most screwed woman in the universe.

But I do care about him even against my better judgement.

...

I take it back, I'm going to kill the Doctor!

How does this shit keep happening?

We were only in that interrogation room for another few seconds before boy-in-mask attacked. Along with his army of Gassians.

The Doctor, Jack attack and I all made a run for it. Of course the boys had to stop and have a bitch fight about sonic bluethinges and square guns and all that blah-ness. It was up to me to save us, and oh what a surprise. I took off my shoe, threw it at one of the Gassians and shouted 'fetch'. That didn't stop them from coming after us, but it did distract them long enough for me to blow up the floor.

We fell through down into another level of hospital hell. Jack attack used his square pistol to ceil up the hole I'd made.

Even after all that though, the Doctor and Jack attack are still blabbering on at each other about nothing important. Oh, how useless they both are to me. I have half a mind to just leave them here and steal the TARDIS. I would do that too if I knew how to fly the damn thing. Now I realise why the Doctor refuses to teach me. It's so I won't abandon him at the first available opportunity.

I'll just have to lull the Doctor into a false sense of security, trick him into teaching me how to fly the TARDIS, and then I'll drop him off on the moon to live out his days alone so he won't be able to annoy anyone else. I'm not afraid to do my part for the universe.

Jack attack flips his hair back at the Doctor and sasses,

"Who the hell even has a sonic screwdriver?"

Alien Bob the builder. Alien Tommy from Rugrats. Alien...whoever else uses a screwdriver.

"I do!" The Doctor says defensively.

I roll my eyes at them and wander off to find the light switch.

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'oohh, this could be more sonic'." Jack attack says mockingly.

"What? Oh so you've never been bored?" The Doctor replies.

I pick up a pillow, two pillows, and throw them at the Doctor and Jack attack.

"Would you two shut up and help me find a fucking lamp or some shit." I snap at the alien morons.

The Doctor pouts in my general direction, but doesn't say anything, for once.

Jack attack just smirks at me, raises his square 'pew pew' machine, and clicks something. All of the lights come on suddenly and a load of Gassians jerk upwards on the beds surrounding us. Crap! Crap and half!

"Door!" The Doctor shouts.

The Doctor and Jack attack try to run on way towards what looks like a dead end storage room. The Doctor opens the door to the storage room and dashes inside. There's no way in hell I'm getting trapped in there. I swipe Jack attacks square gun thingy and run towards the door on the other side of the room. I press the button on it and aim it at the lock. The door clicks open and I push my way through it.

The Gassians are coming after me so I close the door behind me and lock it with the square thingy-that-does-a-thousand-unspecified-things. I hear the Doctor and Jack attack calling out my name. Idiots. But I know they have plenty of time now to get themselves locked into that storage room. The hallway is empty so I run down it and then down the stairs. I keep expecting to meet some more Gassians, but I don't.

I open up a door that looks like it leads out onto a fire escape. Cool, english air hits me in the face and I've never been so relieved to be cold. I lock the door behind me with the square thingy (what can't this thing do? Seriously) and quickly run down the metal fire escape steps.

There still aren't any Gassians around so I feel safe enough to try and work out which storage room the Doctor and Jack attack have gotten themselves locked into. Morons.

After a few minutes of useless skulking around I begin to worry about the Doctor. I know he'll find a way out. He always does. But it unnerves me not to be with him even so. Maybe I should have followed him into that room...nah, if I had to spend one more minute with Jack attack and the Doctor as they insulted and flirted with each other then I would have committed murder.

And then I'd be stuck here, and that wouldn't be good for anyone.

I figure the only way to find the Doctor is to go where he would go. That's how I end up bumping into a panicked looking girl clutching wire cutters.

...

"Where the hell have you been?" I glare harshly at the Doctor when he comes running up to us.

The Doctor matches my glare with one of his own.

"Me? You were the one who buggered off and left us."

I cluck my tongue at him,

"You were fine. I knew you and frack-a-Jack would find a way out. Captain abs over here had that teleportation stuff in his ship. Feel sorry for me, I'm the one whose been waiting out here with Nancy, for like, ever."

The Doctor gapes at me incredulously.

"Well thanks for not even trying to rescue us." Jack attack says sarcastically.

"Oh, sure, blame the nineteen year old human girl with no practical teleport and or fighting skills why don't you." I growl, narrowing my eyes at both of them. "Couple of whiners."

"You threw that shoe pretty well." Jack attack argues.

"You threw a shoe at someone? When?" The Doctor says.

"Keep up, that happened ages ago. Pay attention." I say.

"I'm confused, what's going on?" Nancy, that girl I bumped into, the one with the platted pigtails, asks.

I don't blame her for being confused. Hell, I'm confused by this point. We should ALL be confused.

"The Doctor and Captain Abercrombie are having a go at me. Ignore them, I always do and it works out quite well for me most of the time." I say, giving Nancy a reassuring pat to the shoulder.

"The virus has become airborne." The Doctor says, gesturing back at the army bloke who just went full on gas-face. No, not that kind of gas-face, the other kind. Get your minds out of the gutter. Honestly. It's like you're my mother.

"That's nice," I say, "but how about we actually do something to stop people from turning into Gassians instead of standing around talking about it."

Nancy and I broke into the military site where the 'ambulance' ship smooshed into the ground. I told her we should hide until the Doctor decided to show up.

"Gassians?" The Doctor asks, looking like he'd rather not ask at all, but knows he has to anyway.

"Yeah, you know, the gas-face people."

"You _named_ them."

"Hey, I'm a human, we name shit. It's our thing."

"That is kind of true." Jack attack says reasonably.

"Don't encourage it." The Doctor says, gesturing at me.

I take the wire cutters from Nancy and thwak the Doctor with them. Nancy gaps and the Doctor grunts. Jack attack laughs.

"You hit him." Nancy says.

"And I'd do it again." I say, satisfied.

"You are a violent person." The Doctor says.

"Yeah, well, you're a person who deserves to be hit with wire cutters. That's much worse." I say.

"You are the most troublesome companion I've ever had." The Doctor complains, rubbing at the place where I thwacked him one.

"We prefer to be called 'helpers to the clinically insane'." I say.

"You're my sidekick. Deal with it." The Doctor says.

"I'm _your_ sidekick? Oh frack no, I think you'll find I'm the big cheese around here. If anything you're _my_ sidekick. In fact, no, you're not even my sidekick. You're more like my mascot. And that's still pushing it." I say.

"Ok, guys, I think we're going a little of topic here." Jack attack interrupts. Nancy just looks equally scandalised and horrified to be in our presence, which is fair enough.

The Doctor's eyes widen and he starts nodding frantically,

"Ah, right, nanogenes. Bomb. Gas-mask virus. Got it. Lets go."

The Doctor starts marching off and we all follow after him.

Jack attacks shows us the 'ambulance' and the Doctor starts to prod and poke at it. I slap at his hand.

"Hey, we agreed no touching." I say.

The Doctor looks like he genuinely want to stick his tongue out at me. I dare him to with my eyes.

"See, it's just an ambulance. Nothing dangerous." Jack attacks says, gesturing at the giant...metal...thingy. I honestly don't know how else to describe it.

" _That's_ an ambulance." Nancy says, looking especially perturbed.

I pat her shoulder again and say,

"It's complicated spacey stuff. Don't ask the Doctor about it."

"Why not? Is it a secret?" Nancy asks.

"No. But if you ask about it then the Doctor won't ever shut up and that would be terrible, trust me. He sounds all charming and funny at first, but that fades. Quickly. Especially when he babbles on about space science crap. Which is all the time."

"I am standing right here." The Doctor says, sending me a look of doom.

I glance at him and stare blankly.

"I'm aware of that." I say. "Your point?"

The Doctor growls something vaguely insulting in another language at me. I don't know exactly what he's saying, but I can read the tone. He's annoyed and angry. That satisfies me greatly.

Jack attacks starts pressing buttons on the metal thingy.

"What are you doing?" The Doctor asks, a bit of accusation in his voice.

"The sooner you see that there's nothing in here, the sooner you'll see that I had nothing to do with any of this." Jack attack says.

Suddenly the metal thingy explodes just a little bit and we all jump back.

"Bloody hell, no exploding so near to my face thank you." I say.

"That didn't happen last time." Jack attack says, sounding a bit more panicked this time.

The metal thingy is flashing and beeping and it sending out a calling signal to all Gassians, I just know it. The Doctor and Jack attack start fiddling around with the metal thingies key-pad trying to get it open.

I'm distracted from my thoughts when Nancy asks me,

"Who are you lot? I mean, really."

I give her the most serious look I can manage, and say,

"We're wizards. I'm from the year 1998. We used a device called a time turner to travel back in time so that we could kill the most evil dark wizard who ever lived before he can come into full power and create any Horcruxes-"

"Ever!" The Doctor scolds warningly.

I sigh heavily. I never get to have any fun.

"Fine." I say to Nancy, "We aren't wizards. But we did travel in time."

"To kill a dark wizard?" Nancy asks, completely deadpan.

I wave a hand,

"No, no. But that would be wicked if we had. The Doctor won't let me do that though. He made a deal with JK Rowling and won't share his secrets-"

"For the last time, Harry Potter isn't real!" The Doctor shouts at me, sounding endlessly frustrated.

Good. My work here is done.

Jack attack and the Doctor get the metal thingy open. Predictably there's nothing inside. Or at least that's what it seems like. Then the Doctor starts spouting off about nanogene and blah blah rebuild a species blah blah Nancy is the baby tornado's mother blah blah.

Like we all didn't see that one coming.

"You need to tell him Nancy." The Doctor says.

We surrounded by Gassians, Jack attacks has zapped out of here because of the bomb heading straight for us, and my new friend Nancy is crying about how all this is her fault. I still blame the Doctor personally. It's far easier that way.

The gates open and the baby tornado, 'Jamie', comes wandering in still asking for his mummy. Nancy lets out a sob and does as the Doctor asks here. The Doctor stands back with me and we watch as Nancy hugs the baby tornado.

Nanogenes appear, buzzing around Nancy and her son.

"Come on you clever little nanogenes, figure it out!" The Doctor says excitedly. I take a subtle step away from him. An excited Doctor is always worth being wary of.

As predicted, the nanogenes recognise the connection between Nancy and the baby tornado. When the Doctor takes the mask off of Jamie, I've never seen him smile quite so wide. It makes something warm curl inside me to see him so alive and joyful.

The Doctor uses the nanogenes to fix all the other Gassians.

"Everybody lives, Ever! For once, everybody lives!" The Doctor grabs hold of me and lifts me up in his arms. He spins me around a few times and I find myself laughing.

"What about the bomb?" I ask the Doctor once he's stopped spinning quite so raucously.

"Taken care of." The Doctor says with a wink.

I lean my forehead close enough to touch his and say knowingly,

"You tricked Jack attack into it, huh?" Because that's just something the Doctor would do.

The Doctor's smile widens. Sneaky bastard.

"We better go save him before he gets himself blown up then." I say more seriously.

The Doctor makes a hesitant face,

"Do we have to? Does the universe really need another pretty boy?"

"What happened to 'everybody lives'?" I ask dryly.

The Doctor makes a face,

"Ok, fine. We'll save your new boyfriend."

I scoff at him,

"Um, I think you mean **_your_ ** new boyfriend, thank you very much Doctor."

The Doctor actually laughs at that, which is a real testament to how happy he is right now.

We leave Nancy, Jamie and the ex-Gassians. The Doctor sets up the metal thingy to explode.

Once we're back on the TARDIS, the Doctor and I set off to find Jack. He's where we'd thought he'd be. Waiting for his ship and the bomb to explode, taking him with it.

It takes him a while to notice us.

I wave at him from inside the TARDIS. Jack attack just stares, clearly dumbefounded, for a few seconds. Finally I wave a hand at him and call out,

"Come on then, we have places to go, worlds to save, and ice cream to eat."

Jack attack grins at me and makes his way into the TARDIS from his ship. The Doctor detaches us from the about-to-be-blown-up ship.

"Welcome to the TARDIS." The Doctor says, and he shares a smirk with me.

"I know when he says it it wounds a lot like 'welcome to your ultimate doom', so I'll say it instead, welcome to the TARDIS." I skip over to Jack attack and throw my arm around his neck.

Jack attack laughs and hugs me tightly and spins me in a little circle.

"Alright, that's enough. I brought him along to be looked at, not touched." The Doctor says, a teasing glint in his eyes.

I stride over him and lean right up into his space. The Doctor shakes his head and wraps an arm around my shoulders. I press myself against him and say,

"Jealous. So completely jealous."

"Yeah, but of which one of us." Jack attacks says, still grinning.

"Fair point." I say, nodding.

"You're both insane." The Doctor says, "I must be mad letting you and Captain America in here."

"I think you'll find you're lucky we let you stay in here with us." I say, smirking up at him.

"See, like I said, completely insane." The Doctor says.

I reach up on my toes and kiss his cheek. The Doctor's smile widens and he squeezes me tighter to his side.

Yeah, maybe we're both a little mad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N-I am SO sorry for not updating. Its been AGES. I just had serious writers block with this story. But I'm back now, and I hope you liked his chapter.
> 
> Thank you all for reading and please comment! xxx


	10. Bad Wolf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.

You know how you have good days? Then you have bad days. And some days are a mix of both.

Today is not any of those. Today is a super shitty insanely fucked up so not even a little bit ok day.

It started out weird enough with me waking up inside a futuristic version of the quizshow 'The Weakest link' having no idea where I was or how I got there. Everything pretty much turned to shit from that point onwards. I didn't fully understand the mind frakery that I'd been dropped into until I saw someone get laser beamed to death right in front of me. Not a good thing to visualise. But at least my nightmares have something new to taunt me with. So, you know, silver lining.

When I lost the game, I knew it was over. I mean, I'm not an idiot, I knew the game itself was finished. But I also knew it was over for me. There was no way out. I was trapped and about thirty seconds away from being murdered by a fucking robot. Of all the ways I thought I might die, death via Anne-bot was pretty low on the list.

For about the tenth time since I began traveling with the Doctor I thought I knew for sure that I was about to die. A moment of clarity hit me then, and I realised that I regretted nothing. Except the fact that Rose and my Mum would be devastated when they found out. I knew the Doctor would tell them himself, as he promised them, and me, that he would. I wondered who would hit him the hardest, Mum or my sister. Well, he'd probably deserve it anyway, the big eared dope.

But, before the android could 'blast me to atoms', or what-ever-the-frak, the Doctor finally decided to show up. He always slides to the rescue at the last minute. Maybe next time he'll actually try a little harder to go into hero mode before the very last possible second.

As soon as I saw the Doctor's face, I ran to him. Because I had to. Because he came for me. Because I believed that he would always be able to save me. I ran to him. The Doctor, a man who has shown me the wonders of the universe. And the horrors too. I'm beginning to think you can never have one without the other.

I ran to him, screaming his name. But then I saw both relief and dawning fear fill his eyes. Those two intense emotions swirled together and spilled out into the world. It almost made me hesitate. Not that it would have mattered.

I wasn't fast enough. I never am.

I could never outrun the police after I shoplifted or vandalised something out of sheer drunken boredom. So of course I couldn't outrun a killer android.

I'm dead. Or, at least, I should be.

But when I open my eyes I find myself lying on the floor with a pounding headache. The Doctor is nowhere in sight. What I do see causes my headache to turn into a migraine and my body to spring into action.

I shuffle backwards frantically, keeping my gaze fixed on _it_.

I shake my head in horrified disbelief,

"Holy shit, where the frickaty frak did you come from?" I look around, my eyes scanning the large...room? I see more of them and my brain just about explodes. "Alright, it's official. I'm in hell."

"Alert! Alert! We are detected!" One of the magic dustbins comes rolling in sounding all shrill and terrifying.

"It is the Doctor. He has located us. Open the communications channel." Another magic dustbin orders, sounding just as terrifying and ridiculous. But mostly terrifying.

Magic dustbin number one turns to me,

"The female will stand."

Oh 'the female' is it? What is he, my narrator?

I narrow my eyes at magic dustbin number one and do the most mature thing I can think of. I poke my tongue out at it. Still, I scramble up from the floor with all the decorum of a frosty tree frog. God damn magic dustbins making me all nervous and shit.

A large screen appears above us. I see the Doctor's face and for a moment my heart just stops. I see Jack attack too and I lift my hand to wave at him a bit pathetically. There's a long pause where no one says anything. Looks like it's up to me to get all this insanity underway.

"Hey, so, how are all of you?" I ask with a deceptively calm voice.

"We're good." Jack attack says, lifting his hand to wave back, "You?"

I shrug and splay my hands out, gesturing at the magic dustbins surrounding me,

"Alright. Except for the whole zapnapped by magic dustbins thing. But, well, you can't have it all."

I can feel the Doctor's eyes on me even though he isn't actually in the room. His impossibly intense gaze burns into me, leaving an imprint on my soul. It takes all of my willpower not to burst into tears like an amateur. I really should be used to these situations by now.

"I will talk to the Doctor." Magic dustbin number two says.

"Oh will you? That's nice." The Doctor says, the sarcasm heavy in his tone.

"The Dalek stratagem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene." Magic dustbin number one grumbles. Or, well, it doesn't technically grumble, but I imagine if it could grumble then it would be doing so right now. Can they grumble? Is there a grumble setting? Do they have a laughing track installed?

"Oh really? Why's that then?" The Doctor gets snarky. He sounds off. Not quite balanced. Or at least more off balance than usual. It worries me. Last time we tangled with a magic dustbin, the Doctor almost lost himself. The fury and pain he could never forget raged inside him. I saw it in him. I saw the darkness creep into his eyes and burn a hole inside his mind. It scared the crap out of me to see the Doctor like that. I saw, for the first time, the soldier he once was. Or perhaps it was the soldier he hid, but would always be.

"We have your associate." Magic dustin number three says...smugly. Can a magic dustin even _be_ smug? Do they understand the concept of being smug? "You will obey or she will be _exterminated."_

Rude.

"Oh, and I supposed the 'associate' gets no say in any of this, right?" I snap irritably. "I _will_ be talking to my union rep about all this."

"Ever!" The Doctor says sharply. I just stare at him. See how he likes it.

"You will obey!" Magic dustbin number two demands.

There's a pause where the Doctor just looks at me. I look right back at him.

Then...

"No." The Doctor says plainly.

The magic dustbins shuffle around a bit before saying,

"Explain yourself."

"I said no." The Doctor says. He sounds miffed. Which is fair. How many ways can you explain the word 'no'.

"What is the meaning of this negative?" The magic dustbins get riled up again and shuffle around even more. It's quite frightening. And silly. But also scary, so it mostly balances out.

"It means no." The Doctor says, very unhelpfully.

"But she will be destroyed!" Magic dustbin number one shouts. Who is this 'she' bint they keep referring to? It had better not be me.

"I protest that outcome!" I shout back, "I protest it _hard_!"

"No!" The Doctor full on stands up, ignoring me (because obviously), "This is what I'm going to do."

"Yes, you be sure to give them the bullet pointed version of your plan. That sounds like a good idea to me." I mutter under my breathe.

The Doctor declares with all the confidence in the universe. Arrogant prat.

"I'm going to rescue Everlyna Tyler. I'm gonna save Ever from the middle of a Dalek fleet."

Good start. I'm liking this plan.

"And then I'm going to save the earth."

Even better.

"And then, just to finish off, I'm gonna wipe every last stinking Dalek, _out of the sky_!"

Not so fond of that part. We can work on it later though.

"But you have no weapons. No defences. No plan!" Magic dustbin number two exclaims. Pretty reasonably I might add.

"Hey, he has a plan," I say, "he just outlined it in bullet point form. Can't get much clearer than that."

"Ever!" The Doctor chastises me again.

"I am defending you over here!" I snap back at him.

"I'm trying to be dramatic and you're kind of ruining it." The Doctor informs me, his eyes darting back and forth between me and the Daleks.

Oh. Right.

"Sorry." I say, "Carry on." I gesture flippantly at the magic dustbins.

"You have no way of defeating us!" Magic dustbin number one brings us back on point. Good for him. He should get a raise or something. A gold sticker at least for enthusiasm.

"Yeah." The Doctor says chillingly, "And doesn't that just scare you to death."

The magic dustbins go into a shuffling frenzie.

"Ever." The Doctor calls for me.

I look up at him.

"Yeah, what do you want now?"

"I'm coming to get you." The Doctor promises.

I glare at him,

"Too right you are! You'd better get here fast or I will kick your annoying know-it-all fat arse!"

"I am not fat." The Doctor says, making a face.

"So not the time you guys." Jack attack says from somewhere off to the side.

Jack probably has a point there.

The Doctor locks eyes with me and says,

"I will save you, Ever."

"That's _The Unicorn_ to you." I say, but a smile twinges at my lips despite my highly logical ire.

...

"You know the Doctor. You understand him." Magic Dusbin number forty-six (maybe, I've lost count and they all bloody well look the same. How do they keep track of themselves? Dog tag? Glow in the dark ink? Bar codes?) starts wailing at me.

"Well, the Doctor and I are somewhat acquainted yes, but I wouldn't say I understand him. Who could? He talks such bollocks most of the time." I say whilst simultaneously shifting backwards and away from the crazy magic dustbins.

"You will predict his actions!" Magic dustbin number forty-six(?) shrieks, clearly ignoring me and my unhelpful nattering. The Doctor does that too, it's annoying. I natter with purpose. Purpose I say!

"You are asking the wrong girl. That lunatic's mind is fifty different shades of insane. I'm not ever setting foot inside that crack den he calls a brain." I shout back at the magic dustbin.

"Predict! Predict! Predict!" Magic dustbin number forty-six yells sounding all panicky and shit. I never thought a dustbin could be feisty.

"No! I resign! I didn't go through five years of studying intergalactic politics to wind up here in this dohnut shaped spaceship!" I haven't studied intergalactic politics at all. But my point still stands.

_TARDIS is detected!_

Well it's about bloody time.

The magic dustbins try to explode the TARDIS, but the TARDIS doesn't play that shit. It escapes without a scratch.

TARDIS-1

Magic dustbins-0

I hear the familiar signalling noise of the TARDIS approaching. The TARDIS appears all around me, including Jack attack wearing a leather vest (just _because_ apparently) and the Doctor grinning at me like all his Christmases have come at once. Idiot.

"Yeah, well, thanks for finally showing up. Too busy playing Jenga were you?" I narrow my eyes at the Doctor.

"Oh that was one time, let it go." Jack attack says in exasperation.

"Move out of the bloody way!" The Doctor shouts at me.

Oh charming, real nice. I practically come back from the dead and the first thing he does is yell at me.

I jump sideways, assuming a magic dustbin got taken along for the ride with me. My thoughts are confirmed when Jack attack gets out his massive gun (don't. even.) and lazer beams magic dustbin number forty-six to death. Not a father. Not a son. Not a friend. Not a brother. Just a crazy killing machine. RIP Magic Dustbin Number Forty-Six.

Once the magic dustbin is officially dealt with and sufficiently explodified, the Doctor comes at me. He opens his arms for a hug and I reluctantly allow him the honour. The Doctor squeezes me tightly, and I, against my will(ish), squeeze him back even harder.

"It feels like it's been years since I last saw you...wait...that's probably because it took you six bazillion years to get your arse and overly sized nose over here." I say pleasantly. Well, not actually pleasantly, but it's the thought that counts.

The Doctor sighs, in my opinion far too dramatically.

"And yet, you haven't changed at all. Such a pity."

"Oi, watch it." I smack the back of his head.

"Oh, yes, and I missed the daily beatings from my loving companion." The Doctor says sarcastically.

"I keep telling you," I say, pulling back so I can meet his eyes, " _you_ are _my_ sidekick. Not the other way around. Learn your place."

The Doctor actually smiles at me. I fight the urge to smack him again at the genuine happiness practically emanating from him. I still have my arms around his neck, and the Doctor hasn't taken a step back yet. He's holding me close, protective, more so than he ever has before. Not that the Doctor and I do a lot of cuddling or anything.

"Are you alright?" The Doctor asks with a momentarily serious expression on his face. I'm quite sure it won't last, knowing him.

I huff out a breathe and answer,

"Nope. You?"

"Nope." The Doctor says easily.

"Well that's good. I'm glad we're on the same page." I say.

"For once." The Doctor quips.

"If you didn't talk such rubbish all the time then maybe it would happen more often." I reply, giving his shoulder a little shove.

The Doctor grins at me, but there's none of lightness to it that there usually is. That fact more than anything tells me just how serious this all is.

I catch sight of Jack attack again and he says,

"Oh, so no hug for me then. I helped you know. Why does dumbo over here get all the gratitude?"

I pull away from the Doctor and he lets go with some reluctance that does not go unnoticed by anyone. I throw myself at Jack attack and we hug like it's going out of style.

"I missed you too weirdo." I tell him.

Jack attack picks me up and spins me around a few times.

"Welcome home, stranger."

Despite all the shit that is about to hit us at full speed, I can't stop myself from laughing and hugging Jack attack just that little bit tighter.

"Are you two done celebrating the victory that hasn't happened yet?" The Doctor asks us after a few moments more of laughing and hugging and generally acting like idiots who enjoy being around each other. Because we are and we do.

I look over at the Doctor, frowning at the back of his head. He's too busy poking the squidgy Darlek brain-octopus. Oh, so he's suddenly allowed to poke things, but when I do it, suddenly random touching becomes off limits again. Double fucking standards, that's what that is.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you mutter something over there Doctor?" I inquire with my most innocent voice.

Without looking at me the Doctor replies,

"Nope. You're going mad. Hearing things. I always suspected you were mentally unstable and now the signs are finally revealing themselves."

I resist the urge to take my shoe off and throw it at is head (again). But I only manage to hold back because Jack attack catches my eye and mouths 'jealous' and then looks at the Doctor pointedly. I roll my eyes in response.

Instead of trying to analyse that bucket full of crazy, because the idea of the Doctor ever being romantically interested in me is, and will always be, too insanely ridiculous to comprehend, I decide to ignore Jack attack's obvious suggestive look. The Doctor would never, ever, see me as anything more than his quirky (but hopefully lovable and not annoying) companion. And, to me, the Doctor will always be just...the Doctor. I couldn't even begin to imagine what I would do if we changed that dynamic and made it more. Not unless there was a healthy amount of alcohol to go along with that thought process.

I refuse to actually entertain the notion that the Doctor would want to...I genuinely don't know. Can you date a Time Lord? How would that even go? Dinner and a movie? Dancing? Netflix and snacks? And what if we broke up (probably after the first date once we realised how mad we drive each other)? Who would get custody of Jack attack? Who would get to keep the TARDIS, or would we sell it and split the money?

See, it would all just be too silly.

I bet the Doctor would agree with me. Not that I'm going to mention the concept to him any time soon. That would be one hell of an awkward conversation. He'd probably trip over his own ears with Time Lord awkwardness. That is not an image I need to see played out in real life thank you very much universe.

Well, ok, maybe I would like to at some point. For entertainment purposes only though.

Jack attack and I follow the Doctor when he goes prancing (and yeah, I'm sticking with the word prancing) out of the TARDIS to go face the magic dustbins. As soon as we step outside of the TARDIS' doors, the magic dustbins go apeshit.

" _Exterminate! Exterminate!_ " They all yell, sounding quite agitated to be honest. Hmm, I wonder what could be causing that? Maybe it's the epic Time Lord who is so gonna kick their arses.

The magic dustbins shoot at us, but the TARDIS shield is up so HA! Massive fail, team TARDIS ftw!

The Doctor spreads his arms out wide and says,

"Is that it? Useless. Nul points."

"Alright, alright," I say, taking a step forward to poke his shoulder, "No need to upset the masses. They lazer thingies you know."

"Yeah, but we have a shield." The Doctor scoffs, giving me one of his 'I am so very smart and you are so very stupid' looks. I almost shove him forward and into the magic dustbins whisk-plunger clutches. But I refrain. Mostly because we need the Doctor to fly the TARDIS. I say mostly, what I mean is THAT IS THE ONLY REASON HE IS STILL ALIVE! If I didn't need him to drive then I would have dumped the Doctor ages ago. Just one more reason to convince him to give me flying lessons.

I narrow my eyes at the Doctor,

"For now. We have a magic shield for _now_. There's no need to get all outwardly uppity about it."

The Doctor's expression becomes pained.

"It's not magic."

I frown in confusion,

"What isn't?"

"The shield around the TARDIS isn't magic." The Doctor says as if he's explaining something not that complicated to a two year old. Ok, now there's that urge to ally with the magic dustbins. Maybe I can trade him for the sake of humanity. It's definitely a thought worth considering and/or discussing.

"What is it then?" I demand, making sure he knows how close he is to being slapped. In the dick. Twice. No, three times. I'm feeling like three times today. You should never slap someone an even number of times. It's bad luck. My Mum always used to say that. I repeated the same thing to the police when I was arrested last year for fighting with a boy on our Estate. I slapped him four times instead of three, and I'm convinced that's why the police managed to catch me when I ran through the park.

The police weren't too impressed. Neither were they pleased with me reason for slapping the boy. Honestly, I was just defending

"Science." The Doctor says flatly. He refuses to explain science shit to me any more because every time he's tried to in the past I've either fallen asleep half way through, or asked him the dreaded question 'but why' over and over again just to piss him off. It works spectacularly by the way. Turns out that method is annoying to everyone, even super genius aliens. Good to know there are things that connect us all.

"Magic is just the science we don't understand yet." I say, mimicking the Doctor's bored tone of voice.

The Doctor blinks at me, which makes him look like a startled owl.

"Did you just quote Arthur C. Clarke at me?" The Doctor asks incredulously.

"No. _'Thor_ ', actually." I reply, trying to hide my smirk from him. He's so stupid. He's also lucky I put up with him at all, the great big git.

The Doctor raises a finger, and he's so damn frustrated that his hand literally shakes. I definitely feel as if I've accomplished something today.

"You. Are. Impossible!"

I poke his wagging finger and say,

"Don't point, it's rude."

Now we're touching fingers like Elliot and E.T. I'm genuinely disappointed that the Doctor's finger doesn't start to glow.

"Uh, guys." Jack attack comes into view, his expression one of mild alarm. But I can also see amusement in his eyes which probably shouldn't be there given the current situation we're in at the moment. Not that I have much room to talk. Jack attack goes on to say,

"Look, I really, seriously, do not want to interrupt your clearly very important and very relevant discussion about very important and very relevant stuff, but we have a kind of... _situation_...going on right now. Again, I know that what you two are talking _cough_ tiffing _cough_ about is of a much higher priority. However, it would be remiss of me not to point out that this moment happening now might not be the best time for you two to be arguing...uh...I mean talking." Jack actually says the word 'cough' out loud.

God he's so weird. I'm glad we're friends.

The Doctor pulls away from me and puts his game face on. He looks like he's ready to kick some magic dustbin arse. Not that they actually have arses. But we will kick them metaphorically.

I force myself to pull back as well and concentrate on the matter at hand.

Right, we have a mission. Take down the magic dustbins of evil evilness. Good. Solid plan. Save all of humanity and the rest of the universe before the magic dustbins can ruin it. Simple enough right? Ok, so maybe not so simple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone for reading and commenting! Please let me know what you think of my story! xxx


	11. The Parting Of Ways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SEASON 1 FINALE!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.

The Doctor gets all badass and scary with the Dalek's, the two enemies bantering back and forth with traded insults about emotions and some such bullshit. The Doctor calls himself 'The oncoming storm' at one point, and I swear his eyes flicker over to me right after he says it. I hope he knows I will be mocking him for the rest of time.

Who calls themselves 'The oncoming storm'?

Prat.

Complete prat.

Just like my elephant brethren, I shall never forget.

Eventually the Doctor asks a question that actually interests me.

"So, come on then, how did you survive the Time War?" His expression is carefully neutral, but you don't have to be a genius to see the barely concealed rage hidden underneath the passive mask.

The Doctor hides so much of himself from me. I don't take it personally because he hides from everyone. I have no choice but to hope that one day The Doctor will trust me enough to reveal every side of who he is, even the parts that are buried deep down under all that loneliness and self loathing that he carries around with him constantly. The Doctor's guilt complex is off the charts insane. Like the steady beat of a drum, he chains the madness within him one thought at a time.

" _They survived through me_." A crackily voice booms out of from the shadows.

I turn to look in the direction of where the new voice came from, and find myself face to the ultimate magic dustbin machine thingy. I don't even know how to describe it really. It looks bit like a giant metal spider with only four legs. The top is just one giant Dalek dome with the same shiny blue eye protruding from it. Hanging from the middle of the machine is a tank with a brain-octopus floating inside.

That is one big-arsed magic dusbin. He's practically a magic wheelie bin.

The Doctor's sucks in a breathe when he sees it and almost looks like he wants to take a step back, away from it.

"Ever. Captain." The Doctor says, not sounding at all overjoyed about it. "This is the Emperor of the Daleks."

 _Hurrraaaayyy!_ Now we're having fun.

I lift a hand and wave at the king of the brain-octopus people.

"Hello Octopus king!" I shout.

Jack attack practically chokes to death on oxygen, trying to conceal his obvious laughter. That's very rude to do in front of a king. I tell him so, but Jack attack just laughs harder in response.

"Would you two shut up!" The Doctor hisses at us.

Jack attack and I both flip him off at virtually the same time. God, the Doctor is so touchy sometimes.

" _You destroyed us Doctor!"_ The octopus king shouts accusingly. " _The Dalek race died in your inferno. But my ship survived, falling through time, cripples but alive."_

Well, clearly _someone_ has a kink for the melodrama today.

"Oh, I get it..." The Doctor starts, but he is interrupted, ironically, by all the magic dustbins.

"Do not interrupt! Do not interrupt!" They all shriek in unison.

The Doctor stiffens, and I inwardly wince. He does not like being told to shut up. It's one of his hot buttons.

"I think you're forgetting something." The Doctor says with a fake tone of politeness. "I'm the Doctor and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk."

"He really does like to talk." I interject. "In fact I think he may have a problem. We're looking into finding him a TA meeting. Talkaholics anonymous."

Jack attack cracks up again beside me, but the Doctor looks less than impressed.

"What?" I say, "You sounded angry. I'm trying to defuse tension here."

"Why did I ever take you on as a companion?" The Doctor says, almost as if he's talking to himself rather than me. He rubs a hand over his face. "I must have been off my rocker that day."

"Oi, you were no more mad than I was for actually agreeing to come with you in the first place." I snap at him.

"Ah, fair enough then." The Doctor says wistfully, "We'll both just have to agree that it wasn't either of our wisest decisions."

"Oh, go step on a lego." I roll my eyes. He's such a dramatic sod.

"She's always like this." The Doctor tells the octopus king almost conversationally. "Calling me names and threatening me. It's disgraceful, that's what it is. Most troublesome companion I've ever had. I'll have to be more careful choosing the next one."

"Hey." I glare at the Doctor. "Any new companions will be vetted with extreme caution by _me_ , don't you be getting your knickers in a twist about it."

The Doctor waves a hand at me and turns back to the octopus king.

"Sorry, don't mind her. Mentally deranged that one is. You were saying?"

I take off my shoe and throw it at the Doctor's head. He doesn't turn around and pretends the shoe didn't hit him when it clearly did. The git.

" _We waited in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding."_ The octopus king says. " _Centuries passed and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The bodies were filtered, pulped and sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell is a billion was fit to be nurtured."_

Um, I think I speak for everyone when I say...ew.

"So you created an army of Dalek's out of the dead." The Doctor says.

"Doesn't that mean part of them is human?" I ask, scrunching up my nose in disgust at the thought.

" _Those words are blasphemy!"_ The octopus king gets all rowdy.

It sets a bad example for the magic dustbins and they start shouting as well.

"Do not blaspheme! Do not blaspheme!"

I reach over and punch Jack attack's arm.

"Yeah, _Jack_ , don't blaspheme you filthy mudblood heathen!"

"Hey, you were the one who said it!" Jack rubs at his arm, shooting me a betrayed look. "I was just innocently standing here listening to the big Dalek thingy and looking pretty."

"Ah well, play to your strengths." I say, poking my tongue out at him just a little bit.

" _Everything human has been purged."_ The octopus king says. "I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek."

"Since when did the Dalek's have a concept of blasphemy." The Doctor says, sounding genuinely bewildered. And disturbed.

" _I reached into the dirt and made new life."_ The octopus king announces. " _I am the God of all Daleks!"_

Wow, the octopus king is apparently wearing his crazy pants.

"Worship him! Worship him!" The guild of magic dustbins chant.

"I'm not worshiping an octopus." I say. "Simple as."

"They're insane." The Doctor says, looking around at the Dalek's in understanding. "Hiding in silence for hundreds of years. That's enough to drive anyone mad."

"Yeah," I say in agreement. "But just think how much worse it could have been if you'd been here with them all that time. Oh god, it doesn't even bare thinking about. The non-stop rambling would have been tortuous."

"Ever this is serious!" The Doctor yells at me.

"I _gathered_ that, thank you!" I yell back at him.

"Then take it bloody seriously!"

"You first!"

"I am!"

"Oh yeah, whatever Mr Oncoming storm trooper!"

"For love of... _why_ are we yelling?"

"I don't know!"

"Stop yelling!"

 _"You_ stop yelling!"

"Oh my God, we're all going to die!" Jack attacks predicts with a groan.

"Well, see, now you've upset Jack." I say in satisfaction.

" _You_ upset Jack." The Doctor mutters angrily.

Jack sighs heavily,

"I do so hate it when Mommy and Daddy fight."

"Shut up Jack!" The Doctor and I both yell at him.

I really don't think any of this is helping matters.

"We're going." The Doctor orders. He stalks off towards the TARDIS, pulling me and Jack along with him. Well, it's not like we wanted to stay _here_.

" _You may not leave my presence!"_ The octopus king shouts at us.

We pile into the TARDIS just as the magic dustbins start shooting uselessly again.

...

"Turn everything up! All transmitters, full power, now!" The Doctor goes striding out of the TARDIS shouting orders.

"What does this do?" Random bloke number one asks. He's sitting at a big control panel pressing buttons and such.

"It stops the Dalek's from being able to transmit on board." The Doctor says. "How did you get on, did you contact earth?"

"We tried," Radom bloke number one replies, "but all they did was suspend our licence for not broadcasting the TV shows."

"So the planet's just sitting there. Defenceless." The Doctor says distractedly.

The Doctor turns to frown at girl with blond pigtails.

"Lynda, what are you still doing here?" He looks at Random bloke number one." Why is she still here? I told you to evacuate everyone."

"She wouldn't go." Random bloke number one says.

Pigtails smiles at the Doctor warmly,

"I didn't wanna leave ya."

Oh bloody hell.

The Doctor better not have been recruiting for more companions without me.

"There wasn't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here." Random woman number one says. "We've got about hundred people stranded on floor zero."

"Oh God!" Random bloke number one says, "The fleet is moving. They're on their way."

Well that's not good.

The Doctor goes running off and starts ripping things apart and poking stuff. I assume it's for an actual reason that will help, and not just because.

"Dalek plan, big mistake." The Doctor says. "Because what have they left me with?" He looks up at us, "Anyone?"

"A transmitter." I offer.

The Doctor actually stops for a second and looks at me, shocked.

"Um, yes."

"Ah ha! I got one right! Point for team companion!" I raise my hand and Jack high fives me.

The Doctor recovers and begins faffing around again.

"If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it? Anyone?"

Jack attack's eyes widen in understanding.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"Give the man a medal." The Doctor cries sarcastically.

"A Delta wave?" Jack attack asks.

"A Delta wave!" The Doctor replies joyously.

"Point two for team companions!" Jack attack says, raising his hand. I high five him.

See, we barely even need the Doctor.

Sort of.

"Delta wave? Wanna explain that one to me?" I ask.

"A Delta wave is a wave of Van Cassadyne energy! Stand in the way of a Delta wave and your head gets barbecued." Jack attack says.

"And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Dalek's." The Doctor says, sounding way too excited given the subject matter.

"Well get started and do it then!" Pigtails says giddily.

I almost tell her to back off. She hasn't been admitted as an official companion yet. There are channels to go through.

The Doctor is too busy babbling anyway.

"Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine...should take about ohhh...three days...how long have we got till the fleet arrives?"

"Twenty-two minutes." Random bloke number one informs him.

Not good. Not good. NOT GOOD!

So very not good.

...

Jack, Pigtails and random bloke/woman number one are leaving to fight the Dalek's as our first line of defense. I'm staying behind to help the Doctor, although what help I could actually be is questionable. But I trust the Doctor and he asked me to stay, so I'll stay.

Pigtails and the randoms have already gone, just leaving us with Jack.

Jack stops in front of me and the Doctor. He gives us one of his fully watted grins and says,

"Well, its been fun...but I guess this is goodbye."

Something painful clenches in my chest.

I slap his chest.

"Fuck off with saying things like that. Fake it till we make it, babe." I say, feeling my eyes sting with the promise of tears if I actually think about what might happen to my friend.

Jack turns to me and cups my face in his hands. He eyes are oddly sombre when he says,

"Everlyna Tyler...you are the most extraordinarily insane and wonderful woman I have ever met. I can't think of single person who deserves to be fought for more than you."

Then he kisses me. I'm thrown off for a moment by surprise.

Jack's lips are soft and perfect, just like I figured they would be. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him back. It feels like a goodbye kiss so I want to make it one neither of us will ever forget.

"Alright you two, time hasn't stopped for you to snog." The Doctor says irritably from...somewhere. I'm too busy having the breathe kissed out of me to be more specific.

Jack pulls back with a laugh and I bite my lip in slight embarrassment. God, maybe we should have done that sooner. Although the look the Doctor's face suggests that would not have been tolerated.

"Wish I'd never met you, Doctor." Jack says, waving his finger at the Doctor. "I was much better off as a coward."

Then he kisses the Doctor. Bloody hell.

I try not to laugh outright.

Jack takes a step back and looks at us both one last time before clicking his fingers, making a forwards motion and saying,

"See you in hell."

Jack runs off, out the door. Towards the Daleks.

I bite my tongue to stop myself from asking if he'll be alright. We could all die here today, that's the truth of it. There's every chance that this could it. The big one. The end. I don't want to think that way, but it's hard not to when the Doctor looks so damn grave and serious.

A sense of foreboding hits me in the chest and I fight the urge to let it take me over.

...

"I know we're pretty much screwed, Doctor." I say whilst fiddling with a wire I have no use for. "But..."

"But what?" The Doctor asks.

I keep my eye averted, not looking at him.

"Do you ever think about just running away?"

"All the time." The Doctor answers with surprising honesty. "I've been running almost my whole life."

"But you would never run from this fight." I say with a certainty I can't explain. I just know.

The Doctor is looking at me now. He's stopped messing around with wires.

"No. I wouldn't. You wouldn't either." He says, sounding equally as knowing.

I snort out a laugh without humour.

"I might. I might run and never come back. I could do it. I'm not as good as you think I am."

"You could." The Doctor relents, although his tone is doubtful. "But you won't. Even if I offered to fly you away. You won't go."

"Of course not." I say sternly, giving him a tight smile. "And even if I did, this moment right here would haunt me for the rest of my life." I swallow a lump in my throat. "Besides, there's no way I can justify leaving you here. What if you mess everything up? I won't be known as the companion of a Time Lord who couldn't even build a good Omega wave."

"Delta wave." The Doctor corrects, but he's smiling. It's one of his real smiles as well.

I flap my hand,

"Yeah, yeah. Delta, Omega, Alpha, Beta, whatever kind of wave you like."

The Doctor laughs, but it sounds sad and hollow in this room. It makes me feel ill to hear a laugh like that.

"The Delta waves' started building." The Doctor says, he goes over to monitor to check for himself how long we've got. I follow after him.

When the Doctor's face falls, worry rises up inside me.

"Is something wrong? What's wrong? Can I help? Tell me for flips sake, Doctor!"

The Doctor's shoulders slump and he presses his hands to his face. But then suddenly he looks at me, eyes shining with possibility.

"Yes, Ever Tyler...I know what to do!" The Doctor jumps up from his seat and runs to the TARDIS.

I follow him in excited confusion.

"Hold that down and keep position." The Doctor tells me once we're in front of the consol.

I do what I'm told, still not understanding what's going on.

But I trust the Doctor. I really do. Never more so than right now.

"What are we doing Doctor?"

"I just need to link up the game station to the TARDIS and then we can cross my timeline." The Doctor says excitedly.

Wait...what? We can't do that. I know we can't do that.

You can't cross your own timeline. You just can't.

I don't understand how I know that. I do though. The Doctor is wrong...he can't...there's no way...the Doctor is...the Doctor is... _lying to me_.

But the Doctor is out the door already. Gone.

I don't understand.

He's lying to me.

Why would the Doctor lie?

"Doctor!" I shout, fear igniting in my voice.

The TARDIS starts up with me inside and the Doctor still outside. Fear gives way to anger.

"Doctor the TARDIS is..."

No. No! No way in fucking hell!

I run towards the door of the TARDIS, practically throwing myself at it.

But, like I knew it would be, the door is locked.

Oh, I am gonna kill him for this when I get back.

Kill, maim and fucking destroy!

I pound against the door, knowing it won't help, but unable to stop myself anyway.

"How dare you!" I scream at the door. The Doctor won't hear me but I don't care. The TARDIS is as much a part of him as his own hearts. If I can't hurt the Doctor, then his TARDIS seems like the second best option.

"I won't EVER forgive you for this!" I kick the door again and again and again. Rage and fury burns inside of me, filling up my veins with hatred for what he's done to me. For the choice he's taken away.

Betrayal so painful that it slices into my soul steals the breathe from my body and I have to double over, knees almost giving out from the power of it. Grim resolve sinks in then, just when my anger is at a tipping point.

If the Doctor thinks I'm going to let him go that easily, then he really doesn't know me at all.

...

I'm back home. Although this place doesn't feel like home. I'm starting to wonder, standing here outside a seemingly dead TARDIS, if it ever actually did feel like home at any point in my life.

Maybe I just imagined it. Pretended that I fit in here when all the time I was just waiting for the Doctor to come and offer to show me the universe.

When I first landed, Mickey came. Like he always does. Loyal Mickey. My friend Mickey. A man I've known almost my entire life. The boy I loved. Still love, even though it's not in the same way as before.

No, I'm wrong. This _was_ home once. And it still is when I'm with the people I love. Rose. Mum. Mickey. My unconventional family unit. It would be an insult to them if I said I'd never felt right being here. It does feel right with them. In a way.

But so does being with the Doctor, and I'm not ready to lose that part of my life yet. I'm not ready to lose the Doctor, the TARDIS, and everything that comes with them both. Not just the adventures and the madness and the majesty of the universe, no. Those things aren't as important.

What matters is that I can't say goodbye to the person I know I am when I'm with the Doctor.

He makes me _better_. _Stronger_. _Fiercer_. More ready to fight for myself and for others as well. To do what's right even when everything else in the world is telling me to do what's wrong.

I need that. I need him.

And despite what he might say or think...the Doctor needs me too. He needs me _now_.

I can't give up on him because the Doctor would never give up on me. I owe him this. Even though he's sent me away, I still owe him every bit of defiance I have built up inside me.

"I just have to back. I have to find a way to make the TARDIS go back." I say to Mickey.

Mickey follows me into the TARDIS.

I look over all the knobs and buttons and levers on the consul again, trying to make sense of it. I try to remember what the Doctor always does, but it's difficult because driving the TARDIS is so complex. It's not like driving a car, you have to know how to work the TARDIS specially otherwise it won't even let you try.

"What, there's no reverse button on this thing?" Mickey asks sceptically.

"Not that I know of." I say, still staring at the consul like it will magically give me answers.

And, to be fair, it might.

"The TARDIS is alive." I tell Mickey. "It has a consciousness. I need to talk to the TARDIS somehow. Maybe if I open up the consul it'll...I don't know, help me. I know the TARDIS wants to help the Doctor. I can feel that it's upset about leaving him."

"First of all, that's crazy." Mickey says, "Second of all, you're crazy. Third of all, how exactly do we get this thing open?"

I turn to grin at Mickey. He looks a little freaked out, but he's still willing to help anyway.

"I do love you Mickey Smith." I say, reaching out to squeeze his hand.

Mickey rolls his eyes, but looks pleased just the same.

"Shut up, Ev's. We have TARDIS hijacking to do."

"Quite right!" I say, patting the consul reassuringly.

Don't worry TARDIS, we'll save him. I swear it.

"Where's mum and Rose anyway? I thought they'd come running too?" I ask Mickey.

"Ah, they've gone down to Devon for the weekend. Your mum won some kind of bingo thing." Mickey says vaguely.

"You weren't even listening when Rose explained it were ya?" I poke his side.

Mickey looks a bit sheepish,

"I might have been eating chips at the time and doing something on the computer whilst Rose was talking over the phone."

"You are such a bloke, Mick." I say, laughter tumbling out of me despite everything.

I am a bit glad Mum and Rose aren't here. The thought of trying to convince them to help me get back to the Doctor seems daunting even in the abstract.

"Never mind that." Mickey says, waving a hand. "How are we gonna get this open?" He touches the lock that keeps the consul shut. "Do we need to yank it off? If we get a chain I could use my car."

I throw Mickey a smirk.

"Forget that. I've got something way better." At Mickey's look of confusion I reach around my back and pull something that I had tucked away inside the waistband of my jeans.

Mickey's eyes widen, and he looks up at me questioningly.

"That's the...the...the..."

"Sonic-fucking-screw driver." I supply gleefully.

"Why do you even have that?" Mickey asks, peering at the sonic screw driver I now hold in my hand.

"I nicked it off him earlier on." I say, flipping the screw driver over a few times.

"Why would you do that?" Mickey asks me.

"Dunno, to see if I could mostly." I say with a shrug. "Didn't think much of it at the time."

Mickey laughs then and says,

"Ah, _there_ she is. Ever Tyler from the Powell estate. Amateur thief."

I wink at him and reply,

"About to become amateur TARDIS pilot as well."

"Get a move on then." Mickey says, excitement rising in his voice.

"Do you want to go outside?" I ask him seriously. "As soon as I get this open I'm going back. To a war zone. If you come with me...you might Mick. Honestly, for real, you might die. I can't promise you your safety."

Mickey gives me a weirdly calm smile.

"I can't let you go alone, Ev's. Your sister would kill me. Then your mother would bring me back to life, just so she could kill me more painfully."

I laugh at the truth in that.

"Alright, if you're sure?" I try again, because this is the biggest thing we've ever done together and I don't want to lie to him about how bad it could get.

Mickey takes my hand in his and squeezes it.

"I'm in this with you, Ev's. Lets do it."

I smile at him once more, thanking him silently inside my head.

I press the blue end of the sonic screw driver against the lock on the consul and press the right button to open it. A few seconds later the lock falls off and hits the floor with a clang. The consul flips open and I move closer to look down into it.

I feel the timeless energy of the TARDIS reaching out to me and I feel recognition from both of us, almost as if I've consumed it before and for a single moment my mind goes blank.

But then there's light. And a warmth that spreads everyone.

An all consuming light that wraps itself around my mind and-

I see flashes of images...

_A girl. A little girl. She has...blue eyes._

_"Do you hear them?"_

_A man. White hair. Then brown. Old. Then young. Changing. Changing somehow._

_That girl. That man._

_I know her._

_I know him._

_They know me._

_"Secret." He whispers._

_Blue eyes._

_I know her._

_"Do you hear them?"_

_She knows me._

_"Stay hidden, daughter. I will come... I will come for you."_

_There is a sound. A...sound...it...beats._

_"When the time is right." He touches my face. Looks into my eyes. Her eyes._

_A sound...a sound...do you-_

_"Do you hear them?"_

_Blue eyes. Changing. Always changing._

_A rocket that won't fly._

_"Do you hear them?"_

_The sound...that sound...his sound..._

_"I will come."_

_"Stay hidden."_

_You. Are. Not..._

_We. Are. Not..._

_"Do you hear them?"_

_Alone._

_Drums._

_Of._

_Sound._

_The._

Then...then there is pain. Nothing but pain.

Pain and light.

Pain and light and a...kiss?

Pain and light and a kiss that bleeds into darkness.

The darkness swallows me whole. It takes everything.

Everything.

Gone.

Death. Light. Pain. Kiss.

Darkness.

...

I wake up, blinking rapidly, trying to force the things around me to make sense.

I'm in the TARDIS. On the floor.

"She's awake!"

A voice.

Hopeful. Enthusiastic. Happy.

Mickey. My friend.

"I can see that thank you Marky, I do have eyes."

Another voice.

Rude. Snarky. Annoying.

The Doctor.

How the hell did I get here? What happened?

I figure it would probably help if I asked these questions out loud.

"What happened?"

"Don't you remember?" The Doctor asks me.

I shoot him a swift glare.

"Yes, of course I do. That's why I was asking. Just for the hell of it."

"Ah, it's you!" Mickey exclaims, sounding far too excited considering I am me.

Still, Mickey helps me to sit up, and then to stand.

The Doctor is leaning over the consul, not looking at me.

"You wouldn't believe it Ever!" Mickey says, his eyes wide with...awe. "You were amazing!"

"Seriously though...why was I amazing?" I ask, my eyes darting between Mickey and the Doctor.

"Oh you just had to bring Mackey along with you." The Doctor complains. There's a weird frantic edge to his voice.

"Doctor, are you ok?" I ask. My mind is still spinning, but apart from a sharp headache, I don't feel any different. My last memory is of opening up the consul. Everything after that is just white noise over a brightly lit background of nothingness.

I'd probably find it disconcerting if I could concentrate on anything but the Doctor right now.

I take a step towards him, but the Doctor holds out his hand, warding me off.

"I'm so sorry Ever...there are so many things I wish we'd done together...I can't believe it's ending so soon..."

"What's ending? What the hell are you on about?" I demand, anger creeping into my voice now.

"This is a dodgy process...but don't worry...we'll see how it goes..."

"Stop it! You're being weird, just stop it." I say, trying to move closer to him again.

But before I can touch him, a golden light seems to flash from inside the Doctor, covering his whole body for a split second.

I gasp, stumbling backwards.

"Stay back, Ever...please...God, just stay safe...do as your told for once in your life..."

The Doctor looks at me desperately and I ache to reach out for him.

"Tell me what's happening right now!" I say.

The Doctor hisses out a pained breathe, but tells me,

"I absorbed all the energy from the time vortex, and no one is supposed to do that...every cell in my body is dying."

I spike of pain slices through my head, but I manage to force out the words,

"Can't you regenerate?"

"Yes, of course I can. I'm doing it now, thanks." The Doctor says, sounding almost exasperated. Then he freezes, and stares at me. "Ever...how do you know about regenerating?"

"I...um...I don't...know. I don't know. I just do." I say, shrugging one shoulder. Fog threatens to fill my mind and take the knowledge away, but I hold onto it tightly.

"Sometimes I think you have even more secret places inside of you than I do, Everlyna Tyler." The Doctor says. His smile is gentle though, and kind. "I need to tell you something though."

I tilt my head and ask,

"What now?"

The Doctor's smile widens,

"Ever...you were fantastic."

"Very true." I say.

"And so was I." The Doctor smiles even wider at me.

"Yeah...yeah you were." I say, choking on a laugh that might have also been a sob.

I stumble backwards into Mickey when the Doctor starts to regenerate, his body bowing backwards, light streaming off of him in all directions. I watch him in fascination, and fear. Fear and excitement. For all of us.

Then just as suddenly the light stops and the Doctor practically falls forward. He lifts his head up to look at me.

I suck in a breathe at the sight of is new face.

"Doctor?" I say warily.

"Ever." The Doctor says in his new voice. "Everlyna Tyler...bloody hell, and Mickey's _still_ here."

I choke on another laugh. The Doctor grins at me.

"Where were we?" The Doctor asks.

"You were insulting me I think." I say, a smile forming on my face.

"Ah right," the Doctor says in recognition. "You are a weird one."

Another shit of regeneration energy hits the Doctor and he almost falls over.

Maybe not the best start then.


	12. Going Back For Jack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N-I'm skipping The Christmas Invasion and replacing it with this chapter instead. Mostly because I think this suits Ever's character more. Hope that's ok with everyone.)

"Well, we're definitely _near_ earth at least." Mickey calls out to me from the TARDIS doorway.

"Oh joy unbounded!" I call back to him sarcastically.

The new Doctor just about managed to get us back to earth, which was a ridiculous feat within itself, before he collapsed. Well, he got us into orbit around the earth anyway. Still counts in my book, so, good enough. The TARDIS is pretty much stationary at the moment. I think it will stay that way until the Doctor is well enough to get up and start moving around again.

Me and Mickey gathered him up after he collapsed and carried him into one of TARDIS' bedrooms. I would have taken him to his own room, but I don't know if the Doctor would want Mickey to see the inside of it. The Doctor is very weird about his privacy. I'm not sure if this new Doctor will be exactly like the last one in that respect or if he wouldn't care at all. I figured it was best not to chance it right now.

When we first stopped, I though the Doctor has actually landed on earth. Mickey went to go outside to check exactly where we'd parked. I wouldn't have put it past the Doctor to land the TARDIS in bloody Norway or something just to be difficult. But no, according to Mickey, we're definitely still in space, hovering over the earth. To be fair, I'm just glad the new Doctor can drive the TARDIS at all, even if he does it a little more manically than any of us would like.

I look down at the Doctor. He's sleeping, or at least I hope he is and not slipping into some kind of Time Lord coma. I managed to get his jacket and shoes off, but I just left everything else. I'm not really sure when he'll wake up. I don't actually know much about regeneration, and the fact that I know anything about it all is weird enough as it is. But I _do_ know that he'll be out for a while. The Doctor needs to rest so that his mind and body can prepare itself properly. I've checked his pulse and he seems to be doing ok for now. The only thing we can really do is keep an eye on him.

"So...did he or did he not just shapeshift?" Mickey says, coming up behind me.

"No he did not 'shapeshift'. He's not a bloody werewolf from a fantasy novel. The Doctor just regenerated." I say, rolling my eyes at Mickey.

"And that means... _what_ exactly?" Mickey asks.

"Um." I have no idea how to explain it. "He...just...changed. When Time Lords are dying they have the ability to regenerate themselves and become a new person. Sort of. He's still the Doctor, but just...different."

"Well, thank you, that cleared up absolutely nothing, Doctor Ever. You're getting good at these evasive answers." Mickey says, but he sounds more out of amusement than anything.

To be honest, I'm pretty impressed with how well Mickey's been taking all of this. I thought he might faint or have a panic attack, but he's actually been quite calm and light hearted about everything so far.

I still haven't worked up the courage to ask him exactly what happened back there before the Doctor regenerated though. When I try and think about it my head starts to pound and feel like something important is trying to force itself into my mind. But every time I try to grasp hold of whatever it is, I lose all traces of it completely.

I flick Mickey ear and he yelps, jumping away from me in surprise.

"Shut your face, Mick. I'm dealing with weird shit right now, don't be bothersome."

Mickey just grumbles something under his breathe and shuffles off with the excuse of making tea. He has no idea where the kitchen is, and I don't plan on telling him until he asks. The TARDIS is a weird and wonderful creature. It has more rooms than I'll probably ever get the chance to visit. Some of them are locked. According to the Doctor, some rooms have been locked for hundreds of years. He doesn't even know what's behind them anymore. There are two labs. Three libraries. One for fiction. One for non-fiction. And one library full of forbidden books. I snuck into that one once when the Doctor was asleep and big gold plated books bit me. It probably would have chewed my arm off if I hadn't found a space stapler to beat it with.

A space stapler is like an ordinary stapler except it shoots green goo metal that fuses things together. Mega odd.

Afterwards the Doctor told me off for beating up one of his books. I argued that the book started it. Then I realised that I was competing for the moral high ground with a book, and so I swiftly slumped back in defeat.

The Doctor's mouth opens and a stream of golden regeneration energy seeps out. I watch it come into being and then just as quickly disappear. I can't seem to stop myself from staring at the Doctor. Even though I understand the concept of regeneration, it's still a bit strange to look at this man and see the Doctor after I spent all that time getting used to the old Doctor. I wonder if this version of him will even care about me the same way the other Doctor did. It hurts to think that he might not.

I try to force myself not to think that way. I'm still pissed that he tried to send me off home instead of letting me help him. Just because he's regenerated into a different Doctor doesn't mean I'm not gonna kick his arse for tricking me into leaving him. He's just lucky I'm a stubborn bint, or we'd all have been screwed. Don't think I'm gonna let him forget it either.

"You know staring at him like that is creepy. It's very Twilight of you." I hear Mickey say from the doorway.

I turn around to call him a prat but when I actually see him I can't stop the burst of outrageous laughter that forces itself out of my mouth. I bring a hand up to smother my helpless snickers.

Mickey is standing there soaking wet from head to toe. He does not look pleased.

"Found the pool did you?" I ask once I've gotten myself mostly under control.

"Oh sod off." Mickey says, huffing at me. "Who the bloody hell puts a door in that leads straight into the pool anyway?"

"Someone who knows where the pool is and won't accidently fall into it." I say, choking on laughter again when Mickey squeezes his jacket and a puddle of water forms on the floor.

I so wish the Doctor was awake to see this, he'd think it was hilarious. And he'd be pissed that I let Mickey go wandering around the TARDIS unsupervised. Hopefully Mickey hasn't accidentally injured any of the invisible fish swimming around inside the pool. If he's hurt one of them then the Doctor will go apeshit and possibly throw Mickey into a black hole. The Doctor is very protective of the creatures who live on his TARDIS.

"Yeah, yeah, you're so funny Ev's." Mickey says, still wresting with his clothes in annoyance. "Now hurry up and show me where the kettle is in this stupid place. I'm dying for a cup of tea over here."

I don't really want to leave the Doctor, but we're inside the TARDIS, so there isn't much that can get to him in here. For the moment it seems as if we're safe, so we might as well take advantage of that. I get up reluctantly, squeezing the Doctor's hand one last time before leaving the room with Mickey to show him around the TARDIS.

...

It takes a few days, but eventually the Doctor does wake up. He seems a little off at first, but then he has some tea and actually feels a lot better. I decide not to question it and just be glad that the Doctor is feeling better.

Mickey and I spent time exploring the TARDIS whilst the Doctor was still recuperating in bed. We found the pool again, and Mickey pushed me in, the complete sod. During the days after that we snooped around, messing with stuff in the lab, cooking in the kitchen, searching through the multiple libraries. I showed Mickey the book that bit me, and he teased and laughed right up until the book bit him as well. It took both of us the pry the book off of him that time.

Apart from being generally nosy and doing my favourite thing; poking random stuff I probably shouldn't be poking, Mickey and I watched movies in the cinema room, played around in the onboard gym, baked and burned a cake in the kitchen, picked Mikey out his own room, and made sure to keep watch over the Doctor. I wasn't comfortable leaving him by himself for an extended amount of time, even though we were perfectly safe inside the TARDIS.

Mickey caught me up on all the things I'd missed on earth since I've been away, and he also tried to describe to me what I did after opening the TARDIS consul. I apparently absorbed the time vortex and used that power to destroy the Dalek's. Then the Doctor took the power away and absorbed the time vortex himself. That's what killed him. It should have killed me, and I have no idea why it didn't

I asked Mickey about Jack. I thought it was likely that he died. But Mickey said when he last saw Jack, the man was alive and running towards the TARDIS. I felt elated to hear that Jack survived somehow, right up until I processed what Mickey actually said. I asked if the Doctor saw Jack coming, if he knew that Jack was alive. Mickey looked a bit uncomfortable about it, but he said that the Doctor definitely saw Jack. In fact, Mickey told me that the Doctor seemed even more determined to get away when he realised Jack was alive.

I don't know what happened, but I knew it was something I would have to discuss with the Doctor when he got better.

Me and Mick are just in the kitchen eating breakfast one day when I feel something shift within the TARDIS. I can sense it coming back to life, and I know that could only mean one thing. Not even a minute later the Doctor himself comes striding into the kitchen looking wide eyed and bushy tailed. Not literally of course, but you know what I mean.

The Doctor plonks himself down in the seat next to me at the table. I exchange a look with Mickey. The Doctor flashes me a dazzling smile. But before he can open his big fat trap and start spouting nonsense at me, I get in there first and say,

"About time sleeping beauty. I was about ready to go off in search of a charming prince so that I could kidnap him and force the poor creature to kiss you."

"Where were you planning on finding a charming prince around here?" The Doctor asks with genuine curiosity, seemingly not bothered at all by the abrasive greeting. If it could really be called a greeting at all. The Doctor adds, making a face and nodding in Mickey's direction. "And please don't say you were gonna use Ricky. Who is nether charming nor a prince."

"Hey, you'd be _lucky_ if I agreed to kiss you." Mickey says defensively, clearly not paying attention to what he's actually arguing about.

"'Lucky' is definitely not the word I would use." The Doctor says, still smiling a bit too manically. "More like unpropitious in the extreme."

"Doctor, stop coming on to Mickey." I say, slapping at the Doctor's arm. "He's too good for you."

"Unpropitious?" Mickey scrunches up his nose in distaste. "Is that some kind of spacey alien word?"

Oh for Christ sake. The Doctor looks a cross between vastly amused and seriously annoyed. I give him a warning look when he goes to make an obvious crack about Mickey's intelligence. He concedes and just says,

"No. It's definitely human Mickey. Although several other planets use the same lexicon during this period in history."

The Doctor leans over to nick one of my chocolate shreddies from the bowl I still have sitting in front of me. I hit his hand with my spoon.

"Oi get your own breakfast, space boy."

"Oh, come on, share. This is my kitchen. My TARDIS. My cereal." The Doctor makes a face that can only be described as a major pout.

Apparently the new Doctor is still as much of an idiot as the last one. How unfortunate.

"Yeah, well, you've been passed out for the last few days so I fostered the TARDIS. For now it's all mine. So ha. Stop making a fuss or I'll force you to sleep in the shed."

"You found the lost shed?" The Doctor's eyes widen in surprise. "I thought it was lost two hundred years ago after the great spring cleaning incident of 3146."

"Mickey hid in there when we accidentally released three of the giant radioactive butterflies from one of the lab tanks." I tell him.

The Doctor rolls his eyes,

"They aren't radioactive. They just glow."

"They looked like massive lava lamps when I first saw them." Mickey says, his eyes distant, as if he's not actually talking to us. "I didn't know that if you touched one they would explode like confetti from a party popper."

"What have I told you about touching my stuff when I'm not around to supervise?" The Doctor scowls at me.

"Keep your hair on, the ginormous butterflies are fine. We coaxed them back into their dome tank with some blue honey from their food supply stash." I say, waving away the Doctor's irritation. It didn't take me and Mickey long to the realise that the butterflies weren't dangerous. They just wanted to play. Hide and seek was their favourite game and Mickey and I played with them for a whole afternoon.

"We named them." Mickey adds, looking very pleased about it. So pleased in fact that I can't suppress a smile myself.

The Doctor looks torn again, but he's grinning when he says,

"You know once you pick their names, Butterflamoux are stuck with them. They never forget."

Ah! Butterflamoux! Now I remember. I knew I'd heard the Doctor talk about them before. Apparently they were a gift from a Genovian prince from the planet Knox. The people there are part bird. They keep butterflies as pets almost like humans keep dogs. The species of Butterflamoux that the prince gave the Doctor are very rare and almost extinct. People used to come from different planets to hunt them.

"We gave them nice names." I say reassuringly. "Bart, Lisa and Maggie."

The Doctor stares at me for a good thirty seconds before saying,

"You named three of the most endangered creatures in the universe after Simpsons characters."

"They liked the names." Mickey says pointing his own spoon at the Doctor. "We watched the Simpsons with them in the cinema room."

We did do that. The three giant butterflies rested on our laps. Bart in particular became very attached to Mickey and ended up on his head. Mickey looked like he was wearing a massive glow in the dark blue hat.

The Doctor holds his hands up in front of him.

"Fine. Alright, have it your way. It's like a bloody human uprising in here with you two."

I smirk at him,

"Yeah, that's what you get for lazing your days away in bed. We came and we conquered. Just be thankful that we let you stay in our presence."

"God, see, that's the thing with you humans. Give you a little bit of power and you immediately jump for world domination." The Doctor teases.

I find myself smiling at him. He looks so different. Everything about him is different on the surface. Except his eyes. Of course they're a different colour now. But they're still sad, lonely, old man eyes. His body and face are so much younger, but those eyes...it's always his eyes that give him away.

I realise that I've been staring at the Doctor, and that in turn, the Doctor has been staring right back at me, when Mickey clears his throat. Loudly. So loudly in fact that I think maybe that's not the first time he's tried to get us to snap out of it.

The Doctor's eyes dart away from me only a few seconds after I lower my own gaze. I feel something hot coil inside my stomach. It has a dizzying affect on my mind that I find difficult to hide. I've always reacted strongly to the Doctor, but something's different now. It's almost as if our relationship, or the way we look at each other, has shifted slightly to the left. I'm not sure what it means yet though.

Probably it means that I'm insane and delusional. But that's not exactly anything new.

...

"We're not going back. I mean it Ever. We just aren't." The Doctor says firmly, as if he thinks that puts an end to this argument.

Well, he's wrong about that one.

"Mickey says Jack was alive. He's our friend, we can't just leave him." I say with the same amount of conviction as the Doctor.

After breakfast this morning, the Doctor went off to have a much needed shower. And to pick out some new clothes. He took ages, but admittedly I do like the new suit he's chosen to wear. This new Doctor is quite slim, but in a nice, attractive way. He has deep brown eyes and the messiest hair, possibly in existence. But I kind of like that too. I never thought I'd find myself looking at the Doctor and thinking about how handsome he is. But apparently this new Doctor does it for me.

I'll have to make sure not to blurt that out at some point. I can only imagine how awkward the Doctor would get if I did.

Right now, however, the Doctor is playing on my last nerve. We're actually quite close to having a full blown shouting match.

This afternoon, once the Doctor was all decked out and ready to take on the universe, he started fiddling around with the consul. I watched him work for a while, enjoying just being around him after being so afraid I'd lost the prat forever.

Mickey was off chatting to his new best friend in the lab, which I knew would keep him busy for bit.

I had hoped I could bring up the Jack situation and the Doctor would have a very good and reasonable explanation for why he left Jack behind at the Gamestation. But it became clear very early on into the conversation that the Doctor was going to get angry and defensive no matter what I said about it. In the end I just had to come right out and demand that we go back for our friend.

"You don't understand Ever." The Doctor says in that annoying way of his that makes it sound like he's calling me an idiot without actually using the word 'idiot'.

"No. I don't. So explain it to me. In what universe do you think it's ok to abandon our friend for no good reason." Not that there ever would be a good reason for that.

The Doctor's expression turns grave, and he looks me dead in the eye.

"Jack died, Ever." His jaw clenches, but he continues. "Jack died, and then you brought him back to life after you destroyed the Daleks."

"So? That's a good thing, isn't it?" I ask, confused over what has the Doctor looking so upset.

"What you did...it changed him, Ever." The Doctor tells me. "You couldn't control the power of the time vortex and you turned Jack into something...unkillable."

"What, you mean like immortal?" I gasp.

"I believe so, yes." The Doctor lifts a hand to run it through his messy brown hair in a show of frustration. "Everything about Jack...it repels me now. I could barely stand to look at him through the monitors screen."

"But that's not Jack's fault, Doctor." I argue vehemently. "You can't punish Jack for something that ** _I_ ** did to him."

I feel ill at the thought that I did something damaging to Jack without even realising it.

"We can't go back for him, Ever. I won't do it." The Doctor says, a little bit of desperation filtering into his voice now.

I reach out to grab hold of the Doctor's hands, to stop him from using the consul to distract himself from what I'm about to say to him. The Doctor turns to me, and I take a step closer, moving completely into the Doctor's personal space. I take it as a good sign that the Doctor doesn't back away from me. He must want this. He must want for me to find some way of convincing him to go back for Jack.

The Doctor cares for Jack. He doesn't want to abandon him. Not really. I just have to give him a good enough reason not to.

I look up at the Doctor and lock our eyes together. I almost shiver in response to intensity staring back at me from inside those timeless eyes of his. I just about manage to put that feeling to one side though and say calmly, but with as much pure emotion as I can,

"I know why the idea of an immortal man makes you uncomfortable Doctor, really I do. But this isn't just some random bloke. We're talking about Captain Jack Harkness. The man who saved my life when we first met. A man who respects you and, frankly, idolises you a bit, which I know you like so don't go pretending you don't. Jack is the brave man who went off to fight the Daleks, knowing full well that he would die. He did that for us you know. Not for himself. Or the humans. Or for the universe. Jack fought for **_us_**. For you. And for me." I take deep breathe and bring out my trump card. "Before he left to almost certainly die, Jack said I was worth fighting for. There's no way I can claim to be worth anything if I let one of my friend's suffer without putting up a fight. I want to be the kind of person who Captain Jack Harkness would fight for. Die for. And I know, even though you'd never say it, that you want that too."

I swallow hard, and wait for my mini-speech to sink in to the Doctor thick head. If this doesn't work then I'll just have to keep trying until something does. I won't give up on Jack, because I know he wouldn't give up on me or the Doctor.

After what feels like an eternity of the Doctor staring right down into me with an almost scary level of attention to detail, I finally feel the Doctor give in. He heaves out an almighty sigh and says,

"If I say no you're not ever going to let go of this are you?"

"Nope." I say without hesitation. "I'm in this argument for the long haul baby."

The Doctor laughs at that, his new eyes lighting up with a strange sort of happiness. I start laughing too, for no real reason.

Mickey comes in after a while to find us holding hands and laughing like lunatics. I'm surprised he doesn't just go walking back out again.

Instead though he asks,

"What's going on in here? Did someone release the happy gas?"

The Doctor doesn't look away from me when he replies to Mickey,

"We're going to go and pick up Ever's boyfriend."

I roll my eyes at him and kick at his shins.

"Shove off." I look over at Mickey. "Jack is actually the Doctor's lust bunny."

"Lust bunny?" Both the Doctor and Mickey say in unison. They promptly both look horrified at having done so. I find the twin expressions of genuine dismay on their faces hysterical and start laughing like a loon all over again.

The Doctor and I let go of each other at some point, and I push him to get a move on with the TARDIS. We don't want Jack doing anything stupid like using that space hopper thing of his to bugger off somewhere.

I think even I would find it hard to convince the Doctor to actually go chasing after the immortal man.

The Doctor fires up the TARDIS and takes us back to the Gamestation, returning only moments after the TARDIS would have disappeared. I rush to the door and fling it open.

Jack is standing there, looking the same as when I last saw him what feels like ages ago now. I see the almost painful look of relief on Jack's face. He obviously thought we'd abandoned him here. Which we did, technically, but now we're back so maybe it doesn't count. I have no idea, this whole time travel thing is still weird to me.

"Jack attack!" I call out gleefully.

"Hurry up and get him in here, we're leaving right now!" The Doctor shouts, and I can already hear him getting the TARDIS ready to leave again.

"Come on then." I say, gesturing to Jack to stop gawking and get inside.

Jack's mouth breaks out into a wide smile and he runs towards me. On the way through the door Jack picks me up and carries me the rest of the way inside. It turns into a hug though and I hold onto him tightly. Jack squeezes me hard enough for it to hurt, but I don't care. I'm just glad he's alright. I'm glad we all managed to survive somehow. I wasn't sure if we would to be honest. In fact I thought we definitely wouldn't. So I'm very pleased with how things have turned out.

There's a brief moment when the Doctor and Jack make eye contact over my shoulder and I swear I can feel the tension bleed into the room. I worry that they might start a fight. And a really bad one at that. The Doctor isn't exactly being subtle with his discomfort, and Jack isn't stupid. He knows that the Doctor left on purpose without him.

But, of all people, it's actually Mickey who cuts through the horrible tension. He comes running back into the room. I have no idea when he actually left in the first place, but he must have. Anyway, he comes striding in with a resigned look on his face. He's also wet. Very wet. And there's an equally wet Butterflamoux drooped on his head.

We all stare at him.

"You fell in the pool again." I say dryly.

Mickey shrugs one shoulder and says,

"Bart was hiding at the bottom. Then he got into a fight with one of the invisible fish, so I had to jump in and save him."

That is possibly one of the best things I've ever heard.

Jack takes a step towards Mickey, that charming smile on his face.

"Well, hello, and who are you?"

"Oh Jack, not now." I say, reaching over to pull on his t-shirt.

The Doctor shoots looks of displeasure between Jack and Mickey. Then he narrows his eyes at me and says,

"You can pick one of them. We are _not_ keeping both."

Ha, we'll just see about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU MY UNICORN BRETHREN FOR REVIEWING! AND THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR READING! X


	13. New Earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N-Just a little warning before this chapter. This is my version of the episode 'New Earth' from series 2. But there will be no Cassandra story line involved. I didn't want anyone to be confused by this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Doctor Who, or any of the characters in the show. At all. Like, seriously, I mean it. Please don't sue me, I have nothing. All that belongs to me is Ever.

"Where are we going this time, Doctor?" I grin at him from across the consul.

The Doctor winks at me and says,

"Further than we've ever gone before, Ever."

Mickey, Jack and I are given instructions to help the Doctor land the TARDIS properly for once. No crashing around like we're trapped inside a funhouse at the end of a pier. Well, alright, there's a bit of crashing around, just for kicks. But on the whole it's the smoothest landing I've ever experienced since I began travelling with the Doctor.

"Hey, this is gonna be our first time as a foursome." Jack says, looking at us all suggestively.

"Jack!" The Doctor, Mickey and I all shout at the same time, equally scandalised. Well, alright, maybe not equally since I've technically kissed everyone in this room. I think. Mickey says the Doctor kissed me. Apparently.

It's not that I don't believe him, I just don't remember it. As far as I'm concerned the kiss doesn't really count if I don't remember it happening. Not that I'm looking for a repeat performance. Because I'm not.

Like. For real. I'm not.

Stop staring at me.

Jack attack rolls his eyes at us,

"I meant our first proper trip together. God, you lot have dirty minds."

"You have a dirty everything." I say, reaching over to shove his arm.

Mickey runs a hand down his face, eyes skittering back and forth between me and the door.

"I still don't get why I'm here." He says tonelessly.

"Neither do I." The Doctor mutters, but I know he doesn't mean it really.

"Quiet you." I scold him anyway. Then I turn to Mickey and say, "Oh come on, Mick. Just one trip. I want to share this with you at least once."

A smile creeps onto Mickey's face.

"Alright, Ev's, no need to give me the puppy eyes. I'll let you drag me into danger. Again. I always have done since we were kids. No point in breaking the habit of a lifetime."

I pick up a random thing from the consul and throw it at Mickey. It hits him on the chest and he grunts in pain.

"You behave yourself." I lift my finger and point at all three men in turn. " _All of you_ behave yourselves."

"I promise absolutely _nothing_." Jack attack says, grinning with exaggerated mirth.

I roll my eyes at him.

Technically speaking, this isn't our first ** _first_** trip together as a group. We got a distress call from Rose not long after we picked up Jack from the X-Box space station of doom.

It turns out the Earth was being invaded by a bunch of alien mofo's with a penchant for blood control. The Doctor stromed onto their mothership and stole some skull face bastard's glowy whip. Then he challenged the leader of the skull people to a space duel. The Doctor got his hand chopped off, but luckily he could grow a new one, and yeah that doesn't sound any less weird now than it did then. I always knew the Doctor would take his worm-like alien status to a whole new level, and he did not disappoint.

After the Doctor saved earth by being a nosy, loud-mouth, weirdo, as per usual, Mickey tried to escape back home. I bullied him into getting his arse back inside the TARDIS. Then I bullied the Doctor into letting Mickey come on a trip through time with us. I also bullied Jack into collecting the Doctor's lost hand. We now have a jar with the Doctor's chopped off hand in it, and I have to say that I kind of enjoy the hand's company more than the Doctor's at the moment.

Anyway, back to the mission at hand. Pun not intended. Oh alright, maybe it's a bit intended.

We all make for the door at once. Which is a problem.

"See, this is exactly why I prefer one companion at a time." The Doctor says to me whilst squeezed up against the door frame.

"It's hardly our fault that your door isn't big enough." I huff, trying to pretend I'm not suffocating pressed between the Doctor and Jack attack.

The Doctor scowls at me. He looks ridiculous. But I think that's his standard setting anyway.

"Oh, so now all of a sudden it's _my_ door. Why is it when something goes right in here the TARDIS is _yours_ , but when something goes wrong, it becomes _my_ TARDIS again?"

I scoff in his general direction.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Nonsense, that's all I ever get from you."

" **Me**? You actually think _I'm_ the one who talks nonsense?" The Doctor demands incredulously.

I supress a smirk in the face of the Doctor's comically melodramatic disbelief.

"Now, now, there's no need to get hysterical. This new version of you is an even bigger drama queen than the last version of you. And that's bloody saying something."

"I am not getting hysterical!" The Doctor shouts hysterically.

"Alright, alright." Jack says, finally having managed to pull himself free from the doorway. He half stumbles backwards and pierces me and the Doctor with a stern look. "You two, no more old married couple squabbling or we get back into the TARDIS and leave."

"I'm with discount space Captain America." Mickey says, pushing past us to get outside. "You weirdoes need to stop fighting and-woah! Holy shit!"

Mickey's eyes are wide and disbelieving. He sounds a mixture of awe and shock. Seeing a new planet for the first time can have that affect, as I well know.

I tear my attention away from Jack attack and the Doctor to instead focus on the world beyond the TARDIS.

And yes. Finally. There are flying, fucking, cars. Cars. That fucking _fly_! We are back to the futuring this bitch so hard!

I raise my hand and shout enthusiastically,

"I want to drive a flying car."

"No!" The Doctor, Mickey and Jack attack all respond at once.

"I barely trust you to _drive_ a car, let alone fly one." The Doctor says. He gives me one his new patronising smiles that genuinely make me want to murder him in cold blood. Or whatever kind of blood the Doctor has underneath all that alien skin.

"I flew the TARDIS." I argue adamantly, narrowing my eyes at the Doctor.

"The TARDIS is _not_ a car." The Doctor says, sounding slightly scandalised at the very notion. "And you didn't fly it. The TARDIS flew itself."

"Who told you that?" I demand. "Was it Mickey? Because you should know he's a lying liar who lies."

"Hey!" Mickey protests in outrage.

"Why are you getting involved?" Jack attack admonishes Mickey. "Don't get involved. It will only encourage them if they think someone else cares what they're arguing about."

"Oh. Right." Mickey deflates instantly.

"Um. We are standing right here." I say to Jack. "We can hear everything you're nattering on about over there."

"Good. You were meant to." Jack attack says smugly.

"I'm starting to wonder why I like you." I say narrowly.

"I always assumed it was my ass that caught your attention." Jack muses.

I snort at him.

"That not a very nice thing to say about your face, Captain sleazy pants."

Jack attack just stares at me for a really long time. Then, suddenly, he announces,

"I need a drink. Now. I died and came back to life. Twice. And I haven't had a single drop of alcohol yet. That is completely unacceptable." He turns a wide grin on Mickey. "Mickey mouse, will you please accompany me to the nearest available drinking establishment...I mean to get drunk off my ass as quickly and horrendously as possible."

Mickey looks immediately pleased. He shrugs one shoulder and says,

"If that means I get to drink a pint without having to deal with the TARDIS silently judging me, then I'm in."

"Excellent!" Jack attack exclaims, clapping his hands together happily.

"I am very much on board with this whole 'lets go get drunk idea'." I say.

The Doctor makes a noise of objection, but Jack beats him to it.

"Nah. Ever, you stay with the Doctor and do...stuff...you know...whatever it is the two of you do when I'm not around to provide the much needed entertainment. Mickey and I will go scout for a place to drink."

Before I can protest, Jack attack shares a brief meaningful look with the Doctor, a look that for the life of me I can't interpret, and grabs hold of Mickey's arm. Jack attack half drags Mickey away down the hill towards what looks like a futuristic city from one of my dodgy dystopian novels.

Mickey glances at me over his shoulder, a question in his eyes. I wave him off. It's probably a good idea to give me some time alone with the Doctor. Plus, the tension between Jack and the Doctor hasn't quite dissipated yet. Of course the Doctor won't ever apologise, or even address the problem unless he's forced to. Jack attack is dealing with a whole hell of a lot, so he definitely deserves a break.

The Doctor takes a few steps forward to stand at my side. We both steal a moment to stare out at the shining future city set before us. It's beautiful, and the sight of it fills me with a sense of wonder, and, oddly, hope as well. Truth be told, it makes me feel a little bit sad too. It reminds me of my own city, the city I left behind so that I could see new cities like this one.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to feel at home in London again after all this.

"It's the year five billion and twenty three." The Doctor says. I can feel his eyes on me, but I keep my eyes trained on the city beyond. The Doctor goes babbling on. "We're in the Galaxy M87 and this...this New Earth."

I do look at him then.

"Why? What'd you do to the old one?"

"It exploded." The Doctor says blandly. "You were there, remember?"

"Oh yeah, the blue swimming hat guy and the talking trees." That reminds me of something else. "What did you do with my tree Gregory?"

The Doctor looks honestly flummoxed.

"Who?"

I roll my eyes in exasperation.

"Gregory! My tree shrub. What did you do with him?"

The Doctor looks at me like I'm mad, which is offensive mainly because I've said way madder stuff before.

"I left him on the space station."

I gape at the Doctor in horror.

"What? I told you to put him somewhere safe! You left my very best tree shrub all alone?"

"Yes." The Doctor answers simply.

He is a monster. I shall never forgive him for this.

"What is it with you and abandoning my friends on space stations?" I say, and then immediately cringe hard enough for it to hurt. That was _not_ an ok thing to say.

The Doctor's eyes harden, and his mouth becomes a grim straight line.

I take the Doctor's hand in mine and squeeze it.

"I shouldn't have said that, Doctor. I'm being a bitch today, ignore me."

My insides twist with discomfort.

The Doctor squeezes me hand back and meets my eyes.

"Ignore you? I couldn't even if I wanted to."

I can't tell if he means that in a good way or not. He's not smiling, and his tone is neutral. I move a little closer to him, forcing the Doctor to turn and face me. He eyes me warily, but I plunge headfirst into a bag full of for reals.

"I don't know if I've ever told you this but...you're the first person I've ever felt... _right_ around. Like I belong. Like I fit. Which I know is mental because you're...well...a Time Lord...and I'm...me. But it's true anyway, even if it doesn't make any sense."

The Doctor's eyes are brown, with flecks of green and gold. They're so different from the eyes of the previous Doctor, and yet...he still feels like the Doctor to me. I mean I know he is the Doctor...but, I can feel it. Right down to my bones. This man, this impossible and ridiculous and incredible man, is my friend. He's the same friend who saved me from a life of doing nothing but living for the sake of it.

I think I'll owe him forever just for that.

The Doctor actually cracks a smile, which surprises the hell out of me. It throws me off kilter when he says,

"I thought you were hard to deal with and understand when you were being your usual self, but this new honest and open side of you is much worse."

I have no idea what I'm supposed to say to that one.

"Yeah well, I live to confuse and mystify you." I say after a few heartbeats.

"It would seem so." The Doctor says gamely, smirking at me a bit now like he holds a secret. A secret that I gave him and now can't remember. It's frustrating, and I wonder if this is what its like for the Doctor with me all the time.

I take in a deep breathe and then...hold on...

"Do you smell apples?" I ask him.

The Doctor blinks in confusion, and aha!, I have him again. Then he glances down at the grass beneath our feet and says,

"Apple grass."

"Seriously? Can I eat it?"

"Do you want to eat grass?" The Doctor arches an eyebrow at me.

"I do if it's apple flavoured." I say.

I suddenly realise that I'm still holding on tightly to the Doctor's hand. He's using his other hand to loosely grip my waist. A sudden electrical explosion travels up and down through my body, setting my nerve endings on fire like the lit tip of a cigarette. We're standing close enough to each other that it would look intimate to anyone who saw us.

I'm not sure whether the Doctor actually registers our closeness, or if he just isn't aware of me the same way I am of him. I try hard not to read into anything the Doctor does when he's like this. The Doctor may not be a human man, but he's still enough like one for me to know the score. Clearly the Doctor has had other companions before me, and it would not surprise me at all if I found out he'd been involved with any of them.

It's not that I think the Doctor would hurt me on purpose...but I can easily see myself becoming enamoured with him, and the Doctor wouldn't try to dissuade me from it because he likes being admired. I just have to be careful, and I know that. The last thing either of us need is for me to start having some kind of ridiculous fantasy about the two of us. It's one thing to have loved someone and then lose them; it would be an entirely different level of fucked to love the Doctor and then lose him.

I'm better off never even entertaining the idea in the first place. That way the Doctor will get to keep his companion and friend, and I'll get to keep travelling through time and space with the strangest man in the universe.

I tell myself all of this so that if I ever make the mistake of ignoring my own advice, then I can look back on this moment and call myself a moron. And maybe say I told you so.

"I like travelling with you." I tell the Doctor, pulling away from him after a staring contest that went on way too fucking long for anything platonic.

I link my arm with his and start pulling him along towards the city. If I'd wanted to stand on a grassy hill all day then I could have stayed at home.

"I like having you with me too." The Doctor says, and even sounds sincere. Then again, I haven't gotten used to this new Doctor yet. He could be an even better liar than the last one.

"You know this new you is a lot nicer than the old you was." I say, I screw up my nose a little. "I do not approve of it."

"Are you asking me to be meaner to you?" The Doctor frowns at me. A few strands of his brown hair fall to cover his eyes, and I have to shut down the urge to brush it back.

No touching the epic new hair. Got it.

I sniff at him.

"I wouldn't have had to ask the old Doctor. He would have just done it."

The Doctor stares at me for another few seconds, his eyes scanning my face for sincerity.

"Fine. I think your hair looks crap today. Better?"

I slap a hand down on my hair and rub it frantically, causing the dirty blond strands to frizz and stick up all over the place. Finally, when my hair half hides my face, I puff out a breathe, blowing it up and away. I turn a grin on the Doctor.

"How about now?"

The Doctor grins back at me in bemusement. He reaches over and tucks some of it behind my ear. His fingers graze the skin of my cheek and I almost jerk away. Sometimes I'm unable to hide my reactions to him, and it's starting to piss me off.

"Big improvement." The Doctor says, nodding at my now fucked up hair.

"Hmmm." I say, "Now we just have to fix yours." I pounce, reaching up a hand to mess his hair up. The Doctor tries to duck out of the way, but I've got a strong grip on his arm.

"Oi, get off." The Doctor protests, but he's laughing at the same time.

"Stand still, you big prat, I'm trying to-" My words are cut off when the Doctor suddenly slips on the moist grass and goes down to the ground, taking me with him.

I land on top of the Doctor with a loud whuff. I can't stop myself from bursting out laughing at the stupidity of it all.

The Doctor has his arms wrapped around me, holding me in place. I look down at him through my hair and try once again to blow it out of my face. The Doctor uses one hand to help me.

That all too familiar tension builds between us again, and I absently wonder if the universe is actively working against me for some reason.

I use every bit of willpower I posses to extract myself from the Doctor's embrace. For a moment I think he'll stop me from getting up, but after a moment of hesitation he relents and backs off.

The Doctor scoots out from beneath me and gets back up onto his feet. He offers a hand to help me, but I ignore it. I'm an independent unicorn God damn it. I don't need no annoyingly attractive Time Lord's to be getting all up in my business.

"So," I say, forcing cheerfulness into my voice, "we better go find Mick and Captain smarmy before either of them get into any trouble. And by that I mean Jack getting Mickey and himself arrested for public indecency."

The Doctor gives me a very obvious look telling me my standoffishness was not missed by him, but he appears to let it go. For now at least. As I said before, the Doctor is a world class procrastinator. As long as the Doctor is willing to play along though, I don't really mind this time.

"I wasn't aware that Ricky swung that way." The Doctor says sardonically. Ok, maybe some of the old Doctor is in there somewhere. I'm glad of that. I didn't like to think of losing the old Doctor completely.

I don't even touch the fact that the Doctor obviously knows Mickey's name.

"He doesn't." I say. "But I get the feeling that it won't matter with a bloke like Jack." If there is such a thing as a bloke 'like' Jack. Honestly I think Jack is in a category all of his own.

"You're right." The Doctor says decisively. "We should go save your boyfriend."

I supress the urge to poke my tongue out at him.

"He's not my boyfriend. He's my sister's boyfriend. Rose will kill me if I bring Mick back damaged in any way."

"Ok then, I think they went that way." The Doctor says, pointing in the direction of where I last saw Mickey and Jack.

"Get a wriggle on then, weirdo." I say, and aim a smirk at the Doctor. "Lets rock."

...

We did find Mickey and Jack eventually, or I should say that we found the bar they were drinking at. One of the barmaids, who has three eyes and three arms by the way, told us that Jack fell off a table when he tried to excite the bar patrons into participating in a 'bit of sing song'. He was knocked out cold and had to be taken to the hospital.

The Doctor seemed oddly pleased by the news and started flashing his fake magic paper at me. Of course I still can't read the damn thing, and the Doctor had to explain that he'd received a distress call from someone. I accused him of being nosy. He said that there's nothing nosy about helping strangers. I said there is when you ask them stupid questions and get involved in things that aren't any of your business.

But in the end we had to go to the hospital anyway to pick up Jack. We didn't really want anyone taking samples of is blood, for obvious reasons.

When we arrive at the big fancy pants hospital I'm slightly thrown when I see that the staff are all giant talking cats. I ask the Doctor who decided to let the most evil animals ever be in charge of a hospital. The Doctor tells me off for being prejudiced against cats. I argue that it doesn't count as prejudice if it's true. Cats are pure evilness. Truth.

Now, don't be getting your panties in a twist anyone out there who has a cat. I know your cat is probably nice and cuddly and fluffy. All I'm saying is that your cat is almost definitely plotting ways to murder you in your sleep. So just be ware that by inviting a cat into your home, you are also inviting death by claws. Or suffocation. Ever woken up with your cat led on your face? Yeah, that's because they were trying to off you quietly so as not to draw the attention of your family or loved ones.

The Doctor and I find out from the front desk that Mickey and Jack are on level eighteen. Jack's having a crack on his head patched up.

Once we're standing in front of the lifts, the Doctor says,

"Ok, you go grab the idiots, and I'll check out ward twenty-six."

I shove his shoulder. Hard.

"Fine. But you better not get into any trouble whilst I'm gone. I can't be expected to keep track of three stubborn boys all the time."

"I'm not a child." The Doctor huffs at me.

"No, you're not. If you were then at least you'd have an excuse for the way you behave." I fix him with a pointed look.

A lift door opens and I quickly step inside. The Doctor follows close after.

"Level eighteen." I say out loud. Because voice activation always works in the movies. To my internal delight the lift shudders to life and starts moving.

"Prepare yourself for the decontamination bit." The Doctor says.

I turn to frown at him.

"The wah?"

My question is answered a moment later when a blast of water hits me from four angles. I gasp and almost fall back into the Doctor. He tries to steady me, but I slap his hands away.

"You could have warned me." I sputter at him, water dripping down my back, making me shiver.

"I did." The Doctor says, smiling innocently. But he sounds far too smug for it to be genuine.

He is so very close to getting a slap that it's not even funny.

After we both get blown and puffed at with some kind of white powdery stuff, the lift finally opens at level eighteen. I take one last chance to punch the Doctor on the shoulder and then dash out of the lift, leaving the Doctor behind and rubbing at his arm.

"Try not to destroy the hospital before I see you again." I say to the Doctor.

"Same to you." The Doctor says right before the lift doors close between us.

...

I feel like maybe I jinxed the whole thing.

"What the hell did you do?" The Doctor shouts.

"It was an accident!" Mickey shouts back.

To be fair, it really was an accident.

Once I found and rescued Mickey and Jack from the evil kitty's, we went to meet up with the Doctor. He was, of course, busy messing around with something he shouldn't ought to have been messing around with. He found a secret passage that led down to the hidden levels of the evil cat lair. I followed the Doctor down there with Mickey and Jack in tow.

We were all horrified to find out that the evil cats had been growing people and experimenting on them to create cures for the rest of the population. I was obviously not at all surprised. That's just the kind of thing I would expect from cats.

Things went from bad to worse when Mickey fell and accidentally tripped a wire that set all the sick people free from their containment pods. Now we're all on the run from an army of killer disease ridden people. Who are all wearing clothes for some reason. Like, who gave them the clothes? You can't touch them without getting infected so who dressed them? Why did they dress them? Surely it would be easier to monitor them without clothes covering important parts that would need to be inspected. I asked the Doctor and he squacked some nonsense about me thinking too much. I mean that's rich coming from Mr question mark himself.

"This building is under quarantine." An overhead speaker announces.

"Does that mean we're trapped in here?" Mickey asks, sounding just a bit panicked. I'm still quite proud of him for not completely losing his shit.

Sick people are coming at us from almost every direction.

"And this is the part where we run." I say.

"Move it!" The Doctor shoves at us to go down the stairs.

Jack takes the lead, with me and Mickey following, and the Doctor bringing up the rear.

My heart slams hard in my chest as we run down about a thousand metal steps, then through a few corridors. Sick people burst out of every door we pass. Eventually there's nowhere left to run.

"Quickly, climb up there!" The Doctor orders, pointing at a metal ladder.

We all comply without much argument.

When we reach a door at the top of the ladder, the Doctor throws me his blue blinky light thingy and I use it to open the door. We have sick people following us up the metal ladder.

"Oh, you just had to release the kraken, didn't you." Jack attack says to Mickey once we're all safely on the other side of the door.

"The _what_?" Mickey asks in confusion.

"It's a metaphor!" Jack exclaims, clearly exasperated.

Mickey scowls at Jack.

"Stop saying things." He turns to me. "Ever, he keeps saying things."

"Jack, stop confusing Mickey." I flap a hand between them. "This is no time to be throwing tizzy fits."

We're interrupted by a crazy lady screaming and trying to attack us with a chair. I pick up a near by chair of my own and raise it in defense. The wheel part of our chairs clack together harshly and I almost fall over. I use both my hands to raise the chair above my head and shout,

"For the love of Camelot!"

I continue to duel crazy lady with my chair. She puts up a pretty good fight actually.

Everyone else watches on in amazement. Or at least I assume it to be amazement. My chair battling skills are fucking epic.

"Should we, like, stop them, or something?" I hear Mickey ask.

"I wouldn't." Jack replies. "Not unless you want a chair wheel to the face."

"Good call." Mickey says after a particularly hard hit from my chair to crazy lady's chair has crazy lady tripping over her own heels and sprawling onto the floor.

I raise my chair above my head again, glare at everyone else in the room, and announce,

"COME AT ME BITCHES!"

I finally catch the Doctor's gaze. He's staring at me in what can only be described as...actually, no, I really don't know what to call the expression on his face.

"Ever, put the chair down." The Doctor says.

I snort at him.

"You put your chair down."

A pause.

"I'm not holding a chair."

I throw him an impatient look.

"And how is that my fault?"

The Doctor gets all exasperated and sputtery again. I easily tune him out and concentrate on more important things.

I am definitely keeping this chair. It is my victory chair.

"I shall name you...Steve." I say to the chair.

My chair.

"Are you planning on saving us all any time soon?" I ask the Doctor mid indignant sputter.

The Doctor stares at me for a long time. I just stare back at him. He's such a drama queen sometimes.

Mickey and Jack's eyes are ping-ponging between me and the Doctor, waiting to see which one of us rises victorious from this staring contest. As if there's really any question who will actually win.

As predicted the Doctor eventually backs down. He rolls his eyes at me and then turns back to the room at large.

"Mickey, Jack...everyone else, get me the intravenous solutions for every single disease." The Doctor orders.

Mickey and Jack rush to do as they're told. I kneel on Steve and use him to propel me around the room so that I can grab bags full of multi-coloured liquid and bring them back to the Doctor.

Meanwhile the Doctor damages hospital equipment and ties a yellow rope around his torso. Because why the fuck not?

I help the Doctor attach bags of liquid to his rope. Jack seems to know where this is going, leaving both Mickey and myself in the dark regarding the Doctor's intentions.

"This looks like enough." Jack says, nodding at the Doctor.

"Enough for what?" I ask, scooting around nervously on Steve.

Instead of answering the Doctor goes to the lift and uses his flashy blue thingy to open the doors. The lifts aren't working at the moment because of the lockdown. I'm not sure what he plans to do until the Doctor takes a running jump at the lift doorway and grabs onto the metal cable inside.

"Doctor you lunatic!" I shout at him.

The Doctor uses his broken piece of hospital equipment to latch onto the metal cable. He grips the handles on either side and flashes it with his blue bleep bleep thing. I refuse to call it a screw driver. It's not a screw driver. It's a tiny blue torch that opens doors and does...other stuff.

On the other side of the ward doors slide open and a barrage of sick people attempt to flood into the room. Mickey and Jack attack both bolt for the automatic lock. Mickey grabs a medical pole and brandishes it at the sick people.

"Come on, Ever." The Doctor snags back my attention. He holds a hand out towards me.

I think he means for me to jump on him.

"Hell to the no." I say.

"I need your help, Ever." The Doctor wiggles his fingers at me, like that will automatically convince me to fall down an elevator shaft with him.

And I'm an idiot because it completely fucking works.

I reluctantly release Steve and jump onto the Doctor back. I grasp hold of his shoulders in a death grip and pray to Satan that the Doctor actually knows what he's doing for once.

"Hold on tight." The Doctor says.

"Don't tell me what to do." I snap back. "I am an independent unicorn who ain't got no time for your ridiculous Time Duke ways."

"Time _Lord_." The Doctor corrects.

"Do you always have to have the last word?" I ask, aggravated.

A long pause. And then.

"...Do _you_?"

"Oh for the love of smurfs! Just get on with-"

A scream rips out of my throat as we descend down through the elevator shaft. I cling to the Doctor like a sea barnacle.

When we reach the bottom I quickly extract myself from the Doctor and get a grip by pushing back into a corner. I press on the walls and close my eyes for five short seconds.

"When I give the word, pull that lever." The Doctor instructs me.

I kneel on the floor and wrap my hands around the lever. The Doctor rips open all of his liquid future medicine and empties them into a cylinder shaped plastic container. There are wires handing out of it that probably attach themselves to the lifts main system for decontamination.

The Doctor opens up a hatch once he's done and climbs down into the lift. Before dropping out of sight he looks right at me and says,

"I trust you."

"You better." I reply after a short, but tense, moment of silence.

The Doctor flashes me a grin and disappears to go do something extraordinary.

I think that pretty much sums him up.

...

"I think Jack and Mickey are still on the twenty-third ward." I say. Its where we left them with crazy chair lady and Steve.

There are future police all over the place arresting cats. If only I could convince them to do that back in London.

"We'll pick them up on the way back down. I just want to see the Face of Boe first." The Doctor says whilst already striding away.

Just as I thought, the Doctor saved the day once again. By doing something momentously weird and insane. I don't think he knows how to do it in any other way.

I follow the Doctor up to ward twenty-six where we find the Face of Boe still alive and kicking. Well, obviously not kicking, because he doesn't have any legs. But you catch my drift.

"You were supposed to be dying." The Doctor says.

I slap his arm.

"Doctor!" I turn an apologetic smile on the Face of Boe. "I'm sorry, he's an idiot. He was like this when I found him. Completely devoid of tact."

"Stop hitting me!" The Doctor complains, rubbing at his arm.

"Don't be a big baby, I barely touched you this time."

"There's still a bruise there from last time." The Doctor mutters.

Suddenly my head is filled with a deep, ancient voice.

" _I had grown tired of the universe. But seeing you both here together makes me remember how wonderous it can be. I think dying can wait_."

"There are legends you know." The Doctor says. He goes to kneel down in front of the Face of Boe. "The legends say that you're millions of years old."

I move closer and kneel down beside the Doctor.

" _Oh, now, that would be impossible_."

"Wouldn't it just." The Doctor says. He looks pleased, and a bit wary at the same time. "I got the impression...that there was something you wanted to tell me."

" _The great secret_. _I have two secrets. One for you. One for your most trusted companion_."

"So the legend says." The Doctor spares a glance at me.

"What legend?" I ask doubtfully.

" _It can wait. We shall meet again, Doctor. For the last time._ "

Then I hear words that I think are meant only for me because the Doctor doesn't react to them at all.

" _Your choice will be the hardest. And it will decide the fate of all things_."

A choice? What choice?

But before I can ask any questions, the Face of Boe disappears in a fog of shimmering blue and green light.

The Doctor turns to me.

"Dramatic bastard isn't he." I say. "Might even beat you out for alien drama queen of the year."

The Doctor just laughs.


	14. When Smith Met Jones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N-Before you read this chapter, I just wanted to say that I haven't skipped series 2. I promise. I'm just messing with the timeline a bit and being choosy about what content I want in the story. It will definitely all make sense, I swear.

We are on the pissing moon.

"We're on the bloody moon." Martha says.

Yep, no shit.

Despite all that I've already seen since I started travelling with the Doctor, I can't help but gape out the window at the surface of the sodding _moon_.

I don't know how I keep getting into these situations. Actually, I do. It's all the Doctors fault. Me, Jack attack and Mick were just settling down in a London Café when the Doctor suddenly felt a disturbance in the force or some shit. I'd only just started drinking my hot chocolate. Jack attack was flirting (because of course he was) with Tony The Waiter/Dancer. Mick was on the phone to my sister talking about meeting up later.

I'll tell you this for free, Rose was not best pleased that I kidnapped her boyfriend and took him to the future in my 'weird space box'. She yelled at me through the phone and demanded that I bring Mickey home immediately. I complied only because Rose threatened to tell Mum I'd risked my life to save the Doctor. Mum would have gone barmey if she knew what I'd been up to. Rose only knows about all of it because Mickey is a big, fat, blabber-mouth.

So yeah, the Doctor brought me and Mickey home to London. I insisted on getting a drink before braving the wraith of both my mother and my twin sister though. To be honest, I thought Mickey would have been more pissed at me for getting him into trouble with my sister. I figured he'd be terrified that Rose would dump him over it. But, strangely enough, Mickey has been pretty chilled out lately.

When I asked Mick why he wasn't losing it more, he told that me that he didn't see the point in freaking out over small stuff after all the mental shit he's already survived. I was almost proud of him when he said that. Mickey has officially come over to the dark side. He is one of us now, mwah ha ha ha! And I'm sure he will regret it on a daily basis just like the rest of us.

But anyway, when the Doctor felt some doom-vibes midway through chewing on a bite of muffin, he announced that we had to investigate. He may have used some technical terms to describe the doom-vibes, and also glared at me when I dismissed his nonsensical wrambling and re-branded them as 'doom-vibes', but who cares? That's right, no one. Or at least no one other than the Doctor, and he's basically just my metaphorical talking parrot at this point for all the use he is.

The Doctor dragged me out of the Café despite our bickering over terminology, and in turn I dragged Mickey and Jack attack as well. Mickey tried to protest as he was still on the phone, arguing with Rose. I solved that problem by taking Mickey's phone and making some static-y breaking up-ish sounds into it. Then I turned off the phone and shoved it back into Mickey's pocket.

Mickey just looked at me and said,

"Ever, she's going to know that was you. Because that's how you always end conversations you don't want to have over the phone."

I shrugged and grinned at him.

"Yes, but will she be able to prove it? I think not. She's never been able to before."

Mickey did not look very reassured, but he left the phone in his pocket.

Jack attack was more upset than Mick. He was actually pretty close to getting Tony The Waiter/Dancer's number. Or more likely convincing Tony The Waiter/Dancer to join him in the bathroom for a quickie. Because Jack has the game of ten men combined into one. I told Jack that if we survived whatever we'd be running from today then we could come back to the Café later.

The Doctor led us to a Hospital. That should have been a clue straight off the bat that things were gonna go sideways pretty freakin' fast.

We weren't in the Hospital for more than a few hours before the rain started going up instead of down. As if that wasn't strange enough all by itself, now it seems like we've been transported to _moon_. I've always wanted to go to the moon and now I'm here. So yay for me. I'm probably going to die soon, but whatever. This is still epically wicked.

"It's real." Junior Doctor Martha Jones says. "It's really real."

"I know, right." I say excitedly. I look out the window and see the Earth masked in half shadow. He whack Martha on the arm. " _Finally_ , he takes me somewhere cool."

Martha turns to give me an odd look. Which is fair.

Mickey and Jack attack come racing into the room then, dodging all the people screaming and flailing around like drama queens. Mickey looks relieved to see me. He comes over and checks me over with a sweep of his eyes before giving himself the chance to stare out the window.

"We're on the bloody moon." Mickey intones.

I nod enthusiastically and Martha tells him,

"That's what I said."

Mickey turns to look at Martha.

I take the opportunity to introduce them.

"Martha Jones," I say, "this is Mickey Smith. He's my bestie. Mickey, this is Martha Jones. We met a couple of minutes ago."

"I thought I was your bestie." Jack attack pouts, coming over to lean against the window.

"Don't get clingy, Jason." I say, then frown. "Or whatever your name is. I forget."

Jack places a hand over his heart and feins distress.

"Meanie." He says.

I scowl at him.

"Do I know you?" I ask. "You look like a guy I used to know. But a lot older."

"Epic burn." Jack says, nodding appreciatively.

Jack and I fist bump. Then high five. For double luck.

"I'm really confused right now." Martha says, her eyes darting between us like she's watching a particularly disturbing film.

Mickey gives her a sympathetic smile.

"Yes. That feeling never goes away. You think it will fade or change over time. But that is not what happens."

"What does happen?" Martha asks him, shuffling a bit closer to Mickey and away from me and Jack.

"The worst thing of all." Mickey says gravely. "You become one of them, and find that you don't mind being confused all the time."

"That sounds bad." Martha says, looking worried.

Mickey tilts his head in contemplation.

"Yes. It really, really, is." He says.

I dismiss their nonsense and go to open a door that leads out onto one of the Hospital balconies.

Another sort-of-Doctor has a sudden spazarama about it. I think she is one of the screamy-flailers even though she isn't screaming and failing right at this minute. She's probably screaming and flailing internally, which is just as silly if you ask me.

"No, don't! We'll lose all the air." Internal screamy-flailer yips. She throws herself in front of the door like Batman. Or an idiot.

Martha comes to rescue me from having to deck Internal screamy-failer to get her to move out of my sodding way. I should have brought Steve the battle chair with me just in case a situation like this arose. I should really expect these kinds of things by now.

"These windows and doors aren't exactly air-tight." Martha says. "If the air was going to get sucked out it should have happened straight away. But it didn't, so how come?"

"Very good point!" The Doctor suddenly appears from behind a curtain. Yeah. I'm not kidding. He was literally hiding behind a curtain this whole time. He is such a weirdo.

"Brilliant in fact." The Doctor goes blathering on as usual. "What was your name?"

I roll my eyes.

"Doctor, her name is Martha Jones, we already _did_ this bit." I say exasperatedly. "You know, when you were hiding behind that curtain waiting for the right moment to reveal yourself like a crap magician."

"I was not _hiding_." The Doctor sputters.

"I wasn't actually introduced properly either." Jack says. He smiles gamely at Martha. "My name is Captain Jack Harkness. Pleasure to meet you Miss Jones." He takes Martha's hand and kisses it. Martha blushes a bit. Oh blimey 'o rileys trousers, here we go.

"Jack, don't start." The Doctor scolds.

"I'm just saying hello." Jack protests.

"I wouldn't touch him if I were you." Mickey warns Martha. "He's been places. You might not know where. But I do."

Jack attack winks at Mickey. Mickey looks highly violated by it.

"People, please, can we stay on task here." I say, clapping my hands together loudly. Everyone shuts up. Excellent. "Now, before I was interrupted by Flaily," I gesture at Internal screamy-flailer, who by now looks more terrified of us than the moon situation, "I was on my way outside, so..." I gently kick Internal screamy-flailer out of my way and open the door to the balcony.

I step out slowly onto the balcony and move towards the stone railing. It's incredible. More so than I could ever have imagined. I cross my arms and rest them on top of the stone railing just so I can stare in open wonder at the vastness of space and the universe all around us.

Less than a minute later, the Doctor walks out to stand beside me. Behind him Mickey, Martha and Jack attack come stumbling out together.

I spare a glance for the Doctor. He's smiling at me like I'm more fascinating to him than what's actually going on. If that's true then he's mental. A complete idiot. I smile back at him though. Because he's _my_ mental idiot. It feels strange to think that, but it feels true nonetheless.

Then the Doctor ruins it by saying,

"I really wasn't hiding, you know."

I groan and smack the Doctor's arm.

"That's it!" I shout, exasperated. I turn to my friends and say, "I vote we leave the Doctor on the moon to be eaten by moon goblins, all in favour say aye."

"Aye!" Jack says without hesitation.

Mickey shoots Jack a 'wah?' look.

Jack sniffs in the Doctor's direction and explains,

"He won't let me walk around naked on the TARDIS."

The Doctor makes a scoffing sound.

"That was a group decision Jack. We voted and you lost. Let it go."

"Yeah, but with you gone Mickey mouse will be the only one left who has body shaming issues. Ever doesn't care." Jack argues.

"I do not have body shaming issues!" Mickey protests.

"Do you even know what body shaming is?" I ask him.

"I know things." Mickey grumbles, crossing his arms defiantly.

"There are no moon goblins." The Doctor says to me.

"That's just what a spy for the moon goblins would say." I narrow my eyes at the Doctor suspiciously.

The Doctor throws his hands up.

"You are impossible."

"Traitor." I hiss at him. He works for the moon goblins, I _knew_ it.

"I'm supposed to be going to my brothers' party tonight." Martha says mournfully.

What?

"You are so random." I say. "I love it!"

"What do you think happened?" Martha asks me, apparently deciding to ignore the other weird stuff. I appreciate that in a new friend.

"What do _you_ think happened?" The Doctor asks right back because he is _annoying_.

"Extra-terrestrial." Martha says confidently. "It has to be. I mean, we are _on the moon_. We got **zapped** to the moon. What could be more alien than that?"

"I have decided that we are keeping you." I tell Martha.

Martha looks startled when I hug her, but she doesn't try to escape, which is a bit worrying. Not very good survival instincts on this one.

"Oh my days, _run_." Mickey says to Martha. "Seriously, I'll distract them with something shiny and you make a break for it."

"Do it." Jack says, nodding along with Mickey. "This may be your only chance before-"

But then the Doctor decides to be fucking odd, well even more so than usual, and throws a stone for no reason. The stone hits some kind of barrier, the edges of where the stone hit rippling out.

"It's a forcefield." The Doctor answers the question that no one asked.

"That means we've got a limited air supply." Jack says.

"Of _course_ we do." Mickey mutters.

"But who would do this?" Martha says, her brow creasing. She looks at each of us in turn.

Before any of us can provide the answer of 'I don't bloody know', the ground shudders to life and spaceships appear out of nowhere. The spaceships land one after the other on the surface of the moon. When the doors to the spaceships open, aliens in leather skirts stride out walking two by two like they're off to the BDSM ark.

"I'm gonna go ahead and call it." I say, pointing at the spaceships. "I bet they did the alien rain dance that brought us here."

"Judoon." The Doctor says. He does not sound pleased about it either.

...

"Hey look, they've got a little shop." The Doctor says, clearly pleased.

I thwack him on the head.

"Not now, Doctor. There are rhino doms bleeping at people."

The Doctor, Mickey, Jack, Martha and I are all hiding, quite unsuccessfully, behind a few plants. The aliens have come into the hospital are flashing a blue light in people's faces and then drawing a black 'x' on their hand. The rhino doms are obviously looking for something. Or some _one_ more likely.

"What are the Judoon?" Martha asks.

"Space police." Jack says.

The Doctor scoffs.

"More like interplanetary thugs."

I shake my head at him.

"Might have known you'd be all hippie and 'fuck the po-lice'."

"Why did they bring us to the moon?" Martha asks. "Are we trespassing? Are they going to arrest us?"

"Bloody hell," Mickey moans, "please tell me we are not being taken to space prison. I can't _do_ space prison."

"Don't worry, I'll protect you." Jack says, grinning wickedly.

Mickey gives him a stony look and says,

"I have never been less reassured by a promise of protection."

"We aren't going to be arrested." The Doctor says. "The Judoon are making a catalogue, which means they're after something non-human."

"Well then you're fucked." I say.

"Why?" Martha asks, leaning in closer. "Is he an alien?"

"No." I say, "He's just really annoying. The space cops will probably kill him after a two minute conversation."

"He is an alien." Mickey tells Martha. "Not a very good one though."

The Doctor gets up and tugs on my arm.

"Come on, you can all insult me and move at the same time."

We follow the Doctor up to the fifth floor of the hospital where he starts fiddling with stuff. I don't pay much more attention than that.

Martha and Mickey go to keep watch and come back a few minutes later to report that the Judoon have reached the third floor.

Meanwhile the Doctor is wiggling his blue bleep bleep thingy at a computer.

"What's that?" Martha asks, pointing at the blue bleep bleep thingy.

"Sonic screwdriver." The Doctor says distractedly.

"It's as stupid as it sounds." I say.

The Doctor loses his rag with the computer and starts hitting it.

"What's wrong?" Jack asks.

"The Judoon must have locked down the system." The Doctor says. "They've deleted the records so I can't even try to find who they're looking for. Is there a backup?" The Doctor asks Martha.

Martha makes a face and shakes her head.

"I'm not sure. I'll go find Mr. Stoker, he might know."

"I'll go with yah." I say

...

We never get to find out if Mr Stoker knew jackshit about anything because when we find him he's dead. An old lady sucked the blood out of him with a bendy straw.

Then me and Martha get chased down by a bloke made of all leather. Martha does very well during our sprint around the Hospital. She doesn't even scream. I scream. Because I find that it sometimes helps with the running, and plus I feel like it adds to the general ambiance. If I could be bothered to carry around a boom box I'd play thematic music.

Jack saves us by body slamming the leather bloke and sitting on him. The Doctor uses his bleep bleep whatever to shut down the leather drone.

We tell the others all about how we saw that old bint drinking Mr Stoker's blood. The Doctor deducts will some mild theatrics that the old bint is Plamavore. He thinks she was assimilating the blood instead of drinking it. That way she could appear human when the space cops scan her. That sneaky little bitch.

"But she still won't be safe." The Doctor says, running a frustrated hand through his hair, fucking it up completely. "The Judoon could execute us all...she must know a way of..." He looks up, like an idea just occurred to him. "Oh, she is clever."

The Judoon show up before any of us can ask what the bloody hell he's blathering on about now. They scan the Doctor, find out he's not human, which means we have to run _again_.

The Doctor grabs my hand starts running off. I grab hold of Mickey's hand, who turn grabs hold of Martha, who then grabs Jack's. We all run through the deserted corridors of the Hospital like a chain of connected limbs, weaving in around people who are already struggling to breathe. The air is starting to feel a little thin, which is all kinds of not good.

We get to the MRI room without being gunned down by the space cops, but the Doctor stops just outside.

"I can still make this right," the Doctor says, "but I need time."

Jack gives the Doctor a firm nod, looking exactly like he did that day on the gamestation when he left us to go and almost certainly die.

"I've got your back Doctor." Jack says.

"Me too." Mickey says, slapping the Doctor on the shoulder and grinning bravely.

"I still have no idea what's really going on." Martha says. She sets her shoulders in determination. "But if it will save all the people in this Hospital then I'll do whatever you need me to do."

"That's the spirit!" Mickey says.

Martha and Mickey high five and grin at each other. Christ on a cracker, my sister might have some competition.

"Yeah, go on Doctor, we got this." I say, squeezing the Doctor's hand. He hasn't let go of me yet.

Then the Doctor drags me away from others.

A few seconds later I'm pushed up against a wall with the Doctor boxing me in. He looks me dead in the eye and whispers with an intimacy that makes my heart hurt,

"You are a lunatic. I've never met anyone who can drive me as crazy as you do. But you're mine. So don't you dare die without me."

Something inside me breaks, or gives way, or comes to life. I wrap my arms around the Doctor's neck and pull him down into a searing kiss that blocks out everything else in the entire universe. We could have been transported all the way back to earth and I would not have noticed.

The Doctor's mouth is warm and soft. I slide my fingers into his hair and hold on tight. The Doctor makes a sound halfway between a groan and a growl. He kisses me with the passion of a man who thinks this might be his one and only chance to take what he wants before its gone forever.

I sigh into the Doctor's mouth because it feels like a relief to finally have this. Even if it's just for a single moment. I would take all the running and the fear and the uncertainty to have this with him. My Doctor.

The Doctor shoves me back into the wall a bit, forcing me remove my arms from his neck and wrap them around his waist instead. He cups my face in his hands, stroking a thumb along my jaw in a gentle caress that steals the last remaining shreds of my sanity. He holds the back of my head and kisses me deeper, the wicked intent behind it making me shiver right down to my bones.

It's all over in less than a minute, but it felt like a lifetime.

I pull away gasping. There's not really enough air for that, but sod it.

The Doctor is breathing heavily too. He presses his forehead against mine.

I press one last kiss to the corner of his mouth and make a desperate sound deep in my throat.

"This is a two way thing, Doctor." I whisper. "No dying without me."

Then the Doctor is gone and I'm left reeling. I give myself a second or two to take it all in before pushing away from the wall and making my way back over The Gang.

Martha is openly gaping at me. Mickey and Jack don't look even slightly surprised. Arseholes.

We manage to hold off the Judoon for exactly three point five minutes. Mostly because they scan me and their bleep bleep metal crayons get confuzzled.

Jack, Mickey and Martha try to stop them, but the Judoon ain't got no time for dat. I stop Jack from attacking them because that would be dumb as we have no weapons or any way of stopping them from vaperising us with their ray guns.

Thankfully all the fuss the four of us are making slow the Judoon down long enough for the Doctor to do what he needed to do. Which I should have known would be so sacrifice himself. Because he's a tosser like that.

The Doctor tricked the old bint into assimilating his blood. Martha steals a metal bleep bleep crayon from the Judoon and uses it to prove that the old bint isn't human. I'm too busy kneeling the floor next to the Doctor to care much about anything else.

The Judoon take out crazy blood bint and make to fly off, leaving the rest of us here to die.

Mickey, Jack and Martha kick off about it.

I preform mouth to mouth CPR on the Doctor, which is almost painfully ironic considering what we were doing less than twenty minutes ago.

The air has thinned out to the point that it physically hurts to keep pulling in breathes. But I don't give a flying fuck about that. I refuse to give up. The Doctor is going to live even if it kills me. Which it probably will at this rate.

Don't die. Don't die. Don't die. Don't you _dare_.

I repeat it like a mantra inside my head.

I'm not ready to lose him. I'll **_never_ ** be ready for that.

I pass out a second before the Doctor gasps back to life in my lap.

Bloody typical.

...

I wake up sometime later in a familiar bed.

I feel relieved for a single second before reality slams back into me and I sit bolt upright.

It takes me a minute to recognise the Doctor's room. I've only been in here a few times, and that was mostly just to throw things at the Doctor to wake him up.

I turn to find the Doctor sitting in a chair beside the bed, watching me intently.

It's mostly dark in here, with only a small blue light beside the bed casting a glow over the room.

"How long have you been staring at me you creeper?" I ask him tiredly. I run a hand through my hair and settle back against the headboard.

The Doctor leans his elbows on the bed and smiles enigmatically at me.

"Long enough to hear you snore." He says.

I hit him in the face with a pillow.

"I do not snore, you git."

The Doctor laughs.

"Is everyone ok?" I ask, thinking about my friends and all those other people in that Hospital.

"Yeah. We saved them." The Doctor says.

Relief hits me like a tidal wave and I let out a harsh breathe.

"Where are Mickey and Jack?" I ask.

The Doctor waves a hand towards the door.

"Somewhere out there waiting for you to wake up." He says.

"Well, I'm up." I say, shifting on the bed and sliding off of it with the Doctor's arm giving me some support. I smile at him. "So lets go reassure the masses."

The Doctor makes a fuss, insisting on helping me to the door. I let him because I'm too tired to do anything else. Plus I kind of like holding onto his arm. It grounds me somehow.

We make our way through the TARDIS until we find Jack, Mickey, and whoah _Martha_ , messing around in the main control room.

"Ever!" Mickey says. He rushes over to hug me. Jack follows close behind to pull us both into a massive bear hug that makes me gasp and laugh at the same time.

"Did you weirdoes recruit a new team member whilst I was out?" I ask, looking over at a obviously nervous Martha Jones.

Martha takes a step forward and says,

"The Doctor said I could come along for one trip."

I slide a look the Doctor way. He shrugs.

"It was my turn. You got Mickey. Now I've brought in Martha."

"Excellent!" I say, feeling enthused as hell. "Now I don't have to put up with just talking to stupid boys all the time."

Mickey and Jack both make sounds of protest, but I ignore them.

I go to Martha and hold my hand out.

"Welcome aboard the insanity express." I say.

Martha takes my hand and we shake once.

"I honestly don't know whether to be excited or terrified." She says.

"Both." I say, smirking first at her, then at the Doctor. "Always both."


End file.
